Hamlet, Torture, & the Truth

Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is the greatest piece of drama I have ever read or witnessed in theater. I relate to it because it is all about making a difficult decision. Hamlet, the protagonist, finds out early in Act I that his uncle has killed his father, and married his mother. His father, who appears to him as a ghost, basically orders him to handle things because of what his uncle has done. 

Well, we know what happens: Hamlet spends four acts trying to decide what to do in the face of hard evidence. Poet, playwright Amiri Baraka called Hamlet, the world's "first liberal," because he was unable to decide. It is courageous but also a strategic error: due to his delay, his uncle places him under surveillance, and decides that Hamlet, his crazy nephew, has to go.

So it is now with Attorney General, Eric Holder, a man of enormous integrity, intelligence, grit, and determination who must now must make a difficult decision regarding torture and whether to order a difficult inquiry that will be controversial and politically taxing for his boss, President Obama.

I respect Holder 100 percent and even met him recently. He is class personified but I just wish he would order the inquiry regarding the Bush administration program torture so the matter can be brought to conclusion. No more delay. (The latest development is just that Holder may call for an inquiry). 

After it was just revealed that then Vice President Dick Cheney was operating a secret surveillance operation at the C.I.A. and intentionally kept it secret, inquiry into the nuances of the U.S. torture program under President Bush is warranted. Secrecy suggests, well, secrecy.

The government is supposed to have a relationship with its citizens of trust and accountability. I don't want to be cynical about that. I believe it is possible. Order the inquiry and lets find out what happened. We are at Act V.