Damn the Damnable?

New Years Night, I was flipping channels between bowl games and I caught a glimpse of a Marine Color Guard and Band. At first I thought it was another tribute to President Gerald Ford, but then I noticed it was film and not video tape. And then the credits started to roll. It was the beginning of “A Few Good Men”. I switched channels again and caught a talk news show discussing President Ford’s pardoning of Richard Nixon, an action which (if you accept the position of Ford’s supporters) simultaneously healed the nation and doomed Ford’s political future.

As I listened to the debate over Ford’s pardon (which many liberals will forever condemn as the action which allowed Richard Nixon to escape “public justice”), I thought about THE line from “A Few Good Men”. It was, of course, Jack Nicholson’s vitriolic response to Tom Cruise, “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth.” So I guess the question is “Can America handle the truth? Or maybe more importantly…do we want to?”

For many Americans, the image of the American policeman is Jack Webb’s Joe Friday; the image of the American soldier is John Wayne, the image of the American statesman is Jimmy Stewart’s Jefferson Smith. Obviously, these are extreme idealizations, but this is what we hope for…it’s the truth we want to believe. So, again, can we handle the truth...or do we want to?

Would a criminal conviction of Richard Nixon have improved the American Psyche? History proved that Nixon was a crook. Did America need the conviction? Would America have been better off if Ronald Reagan had been charged for the Iran-Contra scandal? Would America have been better off if Bill Clinton had been driven from office as a result of the Monica Lewinsky scandal? I don’t honestly know. I do know that there are people who despise all three of these men, and they will forever seethe over the notion that criminals were not brought to justice.

I do not like the Iraq War. I believe America was seriously misled (lied to?) about the threats to our security, and those lies have cost 3000+ lives, and have made the world a much less safe place in which to live. Some believe that this level of deception is criminal, and there has been talk of impeachment. The question is would this “truth” do anything at all to fix the horrendous mess in which we find ourselves? Would our nation be healthier? Not likely. Rather, I would hope that the new Congress will do its job of oversight and rein in the President and his inept policies.

In the end, I think Ford was right. Removing (or in the current instance, containing) the problem is of primary importance. Pursuing the creator of the problem, while providing some level of visceral satisfaction for vengeance (which often masquerades for justice), leaves a scar upon the office…and the land.