I don’t think a “truth commission” examining the Bush administration’s conduct in the war on terror is a bad idea in theory. It would be good to get an understanding of what was actually done, how much of it was within the law, and what anti-terror policies really work. We keep hearing competing assertions that various things the administration did prevented or did not prevent real, identifiable terrorist threats. It would be nice to have these claims validated or refuted by an impartial group of experts and investigators.
But that’s the world of the theory. In the world in which we actually live, I have a hard time imagining any truth commission doing anything besides engaging in witch hunts and partisan finger-pointing.
