It's been almost two years since the end of the administration of George W. Bush. Nine years since 9/11. Nine years since the massive roundup of Muslim and Arab men without probable cause. Seven years since the invasion of Iraq on false pretenses. Eight years since lawyers at the Department of Justice published the torture memos, and government interrogators received approval to engage in the practice of waterboarding.

It's been seven years since Afghan General Abed Mowhoush was interrogated and beaten over 16 days, and finally suffocated after being stuffed in a sleeping bag by U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan. Six years since the famous "Taguba Report" (pdf) documented the abuses at Abu Ghraib. Six years since the cover-up of the circumstances surrounding the death of Pat Tillman, the former NFL player and Army volunteer killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. And this is far from an exhaustive list of the violations of law and crimes that have gone unpunished. 

Yet to date, no one in the upper command structure or cabinet of the Bush administration has been criminally or civilly punished for these crimes and abuses. This is what impunity looks like.

The release of President Bush's memoir, Decision Points, and the revelation of his swaggering confirmation that he approved waterboarding ("damn right"), is the latest evidence that the former president and other members of his administration have no expectation or fear that they will ever face legal consequences for what may be one of the most serious and sustained violations of the rule of law by government officials since Watergate.

The failure to fully investigate and pursue prosecution of flagrant violators of the rule of law during the Bush administration's "war on terror" has forever changed the legal landscape of this country. The president and his top Cabinet members and lawyers have been granted impunity for crimes for which others have been prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned in this country for decades.  

As a matter of political high-mindedness, it made sense for President Obama to insist when he first took office that his administration would "look forward" rather than focus on accountability for alleged illegal conduct in the Bush administration. But there is a difference between law and politics. If we are to be a nation of laws and not one of men or women, then the decision whether to investigate and prosecute violations of the law cannot be one of political expedience. At the core of a functioning, mature democracy is the guarantee that the law is equally applicable to all of its citizens.