Many on the left in these United States are well acquainted with the protest cry:
NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!
This chant presumes that when there is justice, there will be peace. Not only will the protesters settle down when justice is done, but the body politic itself will be more at peace.
In many other parts of the globe, however, nations emerging from authoritarian, repressive rule and/or civil strife demonstrate that peace and justice are often in tension and that the calculus of their relation is complex.
As we emerge from eight years of national nightmare, progressives have been struggling with the tension of justice and "peace" in a particular form: Do we investigate and prosecute BushCo? Do we have a kind of truth commission the goal of which is truth rather than prosecution? Or do we just move ahead?
The conventional wisdom in the tradmed noise machine is that investigating and prosecuting BushCo would be divisive, appear partisan, and distract from other priorities. But even in the left blogosphere, many express worry over the political fallout.
Can we move forward into our greatest possibilities without holding BushCo to account?
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