By James Donahue

As evidence grows that former President George W. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney and other members of his cabinet were directly involved in setting up the illegal acts of ordering the torture of suspected terrorists and other captives from the Middle Eastern wars, the pressure is mounting on President Barack Obama to take action.

The issue has become so controversial with more and more legal and military personnel speaking out about it, that the talking heads on MSNBC are starting to wonder aloud why Mr. Obama hasn’t appointed a special impartial prosecutor to open an investigation and determine the extent of war crimes committed and indict those responsible.

The silence on this issue from the White House and the halls of Congress has been deafening, to say the least. And we think we know why.

If readers remember, Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi refused to put the issue of impeachment of President Bush “on the table” in spite of allegations even during the two years that the Democrats controlled the House and Bush remained in office. Mr. Bush was not only accused of war crimes but lying about Iraq’s terrorist links and possessing weapons of mass destruction and leading us into an unnecessary war. There also were suspicions of numerous other illegal acts occurring in the White House.

At the time we suggested that Ms. Pelosi and other high ranking Democrats in Congress were shying away from impeachment hearings because they already knew about the criminal acts, were afraid of being found guilty by association, and therefore were reluctant to open an investigation that would expose too much. Mr. Bush’s advisor Karl Rove was a very sneaky devil who knew just how to draw people into his web and then make them dance while he pulled the strings. He remains, in a sense, the wizard still hiding behind the curtain in the king’s chamber.

If we were right, and new evidence is coming out now that suggests we were, then we now think we know why Mr. Obama is reluctant to open the drapes and shed light on all that dirt just now. Because of the way the Republicans are banning together to block Mr. Obama’s efforts to fix the mess the Bush Administration left on his plate, he needs all the Democratic party votes he can get to push through key issues like the dramatically revised budget, health care reform, stripping wasteful military spending via no-bid contracts, fixing a runaway financial crash, launching a program to rebuild the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, tackling global warming on the home front, and other key issues too numerous to list.

If Congress, the Attorney General’s Office, or a special prosecutor’s grand jury kick off a massive investigation of the Bush Administration’s crimes, Mr. Obama may be afraid of losing so many members of both the House and Senate, the nation will be burdened with going through a special election before he has a chance to get his programs launched.

Because the Bush Gang, war contractors and the criminals controlling the Federal Reserve, banks and major lending institutions caused so much damage, the current state of the nation is so desperately out of whack that Mr. Obama knows we don’t have time to wait. When Bush left the White House January 20, it was as if his last act was to yank the flush lever. Since then, Mr. Obama and the Democratic leaders working with him have been in a rush to plug the vortex before everything is flushed away.

No matter how guilty Nancy Pelosi and the other Democratic and Republican legislators may be when it comes to possible criminal acts and/or war crimes, Obama desperately needs their votes. He needs a working House and Senate in place to help him get the job done.

Everybody knows war crimes were committed. And everybody agrees that the guilty parties must eventually be smoked out and put on trial. But right now, that job is not at the top of this president’s agenda. As much as we thirst for justice, we think we understand.