President Bush will be gone soon.

How should we say goodbye?

It would be a relief to simply toast the end of a colossally bad administration and move on.

It would also be a mistake.

First lady Laura Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice say history will rehabilitate the image of this unpopular president.

George Bush's pals in the conservative media will do their best to make sure that happens. They will continue to whine about how those mean old liberals unfairly mocked a good man.

They will scribble all over history and try to turn Bush into a kinder, wiser leader.

It is comforting to think that electing Barack Obama was an adequate remedy for national hangover from Bush's excesses.

But real change won't come without a real reckoning.

Obama's Web-based town hall, change.gov/openforquestions, bristles with queries like this one: "Will you appoint a special prosecutor ... to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?"

Obama should say "yes" because (1) your children are watching; (2) the world is watching; (3) if this administration is not held accountable, some other president will follow Bush's example.

Vice President Dick Cheney recently told ABC's Jonathan Karl that the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique did not go too far.

"And I think those who allege that we've been involved in torture, or that somehow we violated the Constitution or laws with the terrorist-surveillance program, simply don't know what they're talking about," Cheney said.

For once, I agree with Cheney.

We don't know exactly what those guys did. But we know enough to be uncomfortable. Abu Ghraib. Extreme rendition. Domestic spying. We need answers that can come only from an independent investigation.

Cheney says the nation is safer because of the Bush administration's tough approach.

Many disagree, including the Air Force counterintelligence agent who wrote a book called How To Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, To Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq. He wrote under the pseudonym Matthew Alexander.

In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, he explained: "Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaida in Iraq. . . . How anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me - unless you don't count American soldiers as Americans."

Alexander says he saw for himself that torture is not only ineffective, it's counterproductive. But, even if it worked, I am unconvinced by the argument that the end justifies the means.

Americans teach their children not to stoop to a bully's level. We should expect no less from our president.

High ethical standards lead to enduring strength on a personal and a national level. That's the American way.

But Dick Cheney is correct to point out how little we know about what George Bush did in America's name.

That's why Obama should appoint a special prosecutor. He might prefer to avoid that unpleasant duty. Obama might want to charm, rather than rankle, the Republicans. But it's a mistake to see this as a partisan issue. This is about patriotism. This is about who we are as Americans. Republicans should care, too.

We need to fully understand the extent to which the Constitution became collateral damage in the Bush administration.

We need to make it clear that America's principles cannot be broken, bent or hidden under excuses.

Until we do, George W. Bush can't be allowed to quietly ride off into the Texas sunset.

Reach Valdez at linda.valdez@arizonarepublic.com.