Listen to Leahy

Dear Editor:

One of our most thoughtful senators is Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont. His suggestion that a “truth and reconciliation” commission be formed is the right thinking as we try to recover from Bush and Greenspan’s failed eight years. Maybe President Obama isn’t interested, but the public sure is.

One example is George Tenet, former CIA director, drawing of mobile Iraqi chemical factories (i.e. Secretary Powell on Feb. 5, 2003, to the U.N.). Tenet self-indicts in his book “At the Center of the Storm.” Among the matters Leahy wants investigated by such a commission are: the firings of U.S. attorneys; treatment and torture of terrorism suspect detainees; and the authorization of warrantless wiretapping. “Rather than vengeance, we need a fair-minded pursuit of what actually happened” during the Bush administration, Leahy said.

For God’s sake, how can we correct past mistakes if we don’t admit to them?

Richard C. Goodwin

Snowmass Village