To everybody's surprise, the Obama administration published the legal opinions drafted by the Bush lawyers used by the CIA as a guideline in dealing with many interrogation techniques some of which may be deemed to be "torture".  The release of these memos has been a hot media focus for the past couple of weeks and has since damaged the credibility of, ironically not the Bush administration, but many fellow Democates, most notably the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi herself. 

I am not a big fan of US politics, especially after settle-down in China and in general a Republican sympathizer. Therefore, to me, this action by Mr. Obama is sheer lack of consideration.  it is bad timing and with no clear political goals defined.  Mr. Obama is simply trying to engage too many things at the same time when the economy has come to a critical turning point and the country cannot afford any distraction from its command-in-chief:  It is a simple matter of prioritization.  Many Chinese people probably do not understand why Mr. Obama needs to do this at all.  The US is governed by laws which have nothing by a set of rules and procedures.  In this case, it is the procedures that driving the new Administration to this path.  It is a force beyond everyboyd's control and comprehension. Once you get this process ball rolling, until it reaches the final conclusion, it won't stop.  In releasing these memos, Mr. Obama essentially opened up the Pandora's box-in this case the legal procedures.  We can definitely expect a congress hearing soon, and following that, the ACLU will surely do something to the lawyers who drafted the memos.  One of them is a circuit court judget, his fate is pretty much sealed.

Is all this necessary? absolutely not, particularly not at this time.  But from a legal stand point it has to be done.  This is America, a legal network of which we all belong.  The way, however, to approach it by the Obama administration is not perfect at best.  First of all, for most Americans, the war on terror is far from being over, we are not out of the woods yet. Hence, release these memos or trying to persecute those who in the process may have broken the law is too early. Second, what constitutes torture? If waterboarding or deprive of sleeping is torture, then what is beheading or stoning?  Finally, if as Mr. Chiney pointed out valuable information has been obtained from these techniques, then the issue has become how much we are willing to go to protect our own citizens. The question facing every Democrate or people who are seeking ways to hold the Bush administration responsible then comes down to this: in order to uphold the American value, do we have to sacrifice innocent American lives?