As a liberal Democrat, I appeal to my fellow progressives to back off their obsession with investigating potential criminality in the interrogation of al-Qaida prisoners by the Bush administration ("Bring it on," editorial, April 22).
Former President George W. Bush's gang has departed the government. We have a brilliant young president whose ambitious program could be overwhelmed by many months or even years of bitter political strife over the subject of torture. It is profoundly against the interests of our country, our party and President Barack Obama to pursue investigations that could lead to prosecutions of Bush administration lawyers for their opinions and possibly of those who had ultimate responsibility for the policies.
We don't need the ferocious political strife that could be ignited by such backward-looking vindictiveness.
