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By Hamid M. Khan, a Fellow with the Truman National Security Project, an associate with McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado Law School

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Over the past few weeks, Americans have been cloistered into a confessional about this nation's dealings in the aftermath of 9/11. We have been bombarded by fresh controversies over the CIA's detention and interrogation policies under the Bush Administration, assertions by former Vice President Dick Cheney that the harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects helped save thousands of American lives, and Speaker Pelosi's denials she was informed about the CIA's use of waterboarding and accusations the agency mislead Congress not to mention the impasse surrounding where and how to house those remaining detainees being housed at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The collective exasperation to the present state of affairs can largely be attributed to the overarching issue facing us as a nation: How did we get into this situation in the first place?

We have begun to realize the current state of affairs occurred partly because, for years after 9/11, many of our national institutions did not do their jobs, many did little to voice their opposition and the media were often lap dogs rather than watchdogs. And while the Obama Administration had hoped the recent release of the so-called torture memos would shed some light on some of our darker practices; the ensuing tumult, from both sides of the aisle, has only made things more difficult. For many, the controversies alone should offer the case for an independent inquiry: what better way to sweep aside the politics and get to the facts than establishing a Truth Commission?

A Truth Commission is aimed with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government, in the hopes of resolving conflict left over from the past. South Africa did it after apartheid and United States did it with the Kerner Commission (regarding race) and the 1980s commission that examined the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, arguably, one our darkest hours as a nation.

The controversy regarding a current Truth Commission lies not with the establishment of such a commission, but rather how such a commission be conducted and who it would consist of. Ideally, such a commission would consist of a non-partisan (as opposed to a bipartisan) group heavily weighted with respected military and security officials, including generals, admirals and top intelligence figures. While this would likely be a difficult commission to establish given such an inquiry could degenerate into a witch-hunt, at the same time we must ask at what is the cost off simply voiding a commission or delaying its creation?

It might be to useful begin this "national cleansing" by recognizing that America's actions in the "war on terror" have been driven by fear at home and abroad - fear of the unknown, fear of the alien and fear that it may happen again. Our fears are arguably still powerful enough to condone torture in certain circumstances and even under the leadership of the new President. Those fears (not to mention guilt), contribute to our collective self-doubt and dread. Along with torture, massive wire-tapping, eavesdropping and trespassing on the privacy of personal communications in violation of explicit legal stipulations have been occurring routinely for years. The Bush administration audaciously claimed presumptive powers of a sort associated with autocratic governments and it appears the country tacitly approved them.

While repeatedly expressing his disinterest in such a commission as an exercise of "looking back" President Obama arguably became its best advocate last week when he eloquently spoke at the National Archives surrounded by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It remains that while the present Administration is making strides for the future, America's moral compass remains askew. Taken together, these failures and transgressions are a heavy load on the collective national psyche. As President Obama implicitly points out, an America that is not able, that is not moral, that is not smart, that lies itself - that America is incompatible with the values that sustain us.

A Truth Commission would at the very least would issue a report to help us absorb the lessons of our failings, the better to avoid them during the next crisis and, at best, unshackle us from our guilt and help us restore our sense of self so that we might look forward.