Leave Torture to Historians: Noonan

On foreign policy, it’s “so far, so good” for President Obama’s first 100 days, writes Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal. (Domestically, “there are only so many ways to say ‘Oy.’”) But the torture debate appeared to catch the White House off-guard: "It was flat-footed, confusing." And releasing the memos probably forced the exhumation of an issue Obama reportedly—and wisely—wanted to keep buried. It should stay that way, Noonan argues.

“Torture is bad,” Noonan says, but "prisoner abuse has been banned.. It's over." The press "did and is doing its job: It uncovered and revealed the abuse. The historians are descending, as they should." To drag a special prosecutor or, worse, Congress into the fray now would be to “tear up the country.” This is no time to “have a new fight, and not about what is but what was.” (More torture stories.)