Truth

What's notable about Ricardo Sanchez calling for a Truth Commission is that he could potentially be sanctioned by one. He was the top commander in Iraq during the time of Abu Ghraib. He wrote and signed a memo approving certain banned interrogation techniques. But he considers the future more important than his personal liabilities:

The General went on to say that, "during my time in Iraq there was not one instance of actionable intelligence that came out of these interrogation techniques."

I interviewed General Sanchez after the event and asked him to elaborate on why he felt the US needed such a commission. "For the American people to really know what happened, " he replied, "...this was an institutional failure, a personal failure on the part of many...."

"If we do not find out what happened," continued the General, "then we are doomed to repeat it."

We can do this with a piecemeal approach, where judges slowly force the truth into light and rumors fly and the worst assumptions about American conduct in the war on terror take root, or we can tell the truth and explain clearly what has been done in our name. I opt for the latter.