George W. Bush, former president. War criminal it has even been asserted at times. While individual tellings may differ in detail and specific focus, the point of these assertions usually revolve around a global network of secret prisons set up by Bush's national security apparatus - and the unfortunate actions that took place in them.

As we all remember, in a post-9/11 frenzy, American security forces were grabbing detainees in droves on the vaguest of suspicions from all over the globe and moving them through Bush's hidden prisoner processing plants. By all accounts now exposed to the public, it is clear that many actions taken by US interrogators while sorting an onslaught of the newly incarcerated appear identical to those that have been called both war crimes and torture when used against American personnel in past conflicts. In the absence of any rational negation of apparent facts, at best the question becomes a case of splitting hairs - certainly not a place our nation which prides itself on being a beacon of democracy and honor should feel particularly comfortable.

Take the case of Omar Khadr for example. Removed from the battlefield at 15 years old and placed in Bush's labyrinth of black prisons. No matter if one takes the view that young Omar was tortured ... or the view he was not ... the simple fact is he was 15 years old. I can only imagine what would go through the mind of a 15 year old in the middle of a battle - watching as everyone he knows fell dead one by one. Of all the reactions and decisions to make upon the capture of such a young person, I can not fathom the mindset that selected the course we took.

Recently Omar Khadr left the military prison complex at Guantánamo Bay. He is now in the Canadian justice system and an environment with potential to provide resources that may steer him in a positive direction. Beyond this, it is now known he will be released in a finite period of time.

Likewise in the case of David Hicks. Despite the flimsiest of evidence, he finally accepted a "conviction" in exchange for release - seemingly to allow the US government to save face (or perhaps more cynically, to avoid lawsuits). He is now free in Australia. It is difficult to imagine he doesn't still live with what happened in our prisons every day, but he is free, alive ... and moving forward. As are many other individuals who were graced with a visit to one or many of Bush's blacksite hotels.

Throughout Obama's administration, the president has paid a price in the form of media histrionics at almost every turn in the (at times grudging) process these cases have followed in the post-Bush era. Regardless how one feels about Obama's focus on making results happen quickly, or perhaps even fairly, the wheels of what passes for justice in this modern world have been grinding and slowly tossing out bits of humanity held in a limbo of the Bush administration's purported crimes. And Obama has indeed absorbed media criticism for every transfer - apparently a terrible burden for the modern politician to bear.

Therein lies the seed of a major difference between Bush and Obama. Bush never faced the political fallout associated with having sold a group of (at times randomly selected) detainees to the nation as admitted terrorists based on coerced confessions. He never had to ponder bringing them to trials that would, based on simple justice, see some prisoners acquitted. He left Obama with the question of how an individual can be set free after better than half the nation holds a gospel belief they are confirmed as terrorists ... at least without taking on an amazing downside political risk? Even worse, in today's environment this risk may hold true for any individual pulled from the global "battlefield" on which we play out our War on Terror, were they to go through American court proceedings.

So, the system adapts. In the new era America doesn't typically arrest terrorists in the War On Terror; certainly not under any publicly disclosed American law. The risk is too great. The political cost too high. There is now a cleaner approach.

And so it is today we are able to watch as many targets of Bush-era policies begin to collect the broken pieces of their lives and move forward, clearly damaged but alive. As with the Bush era, our current one too will eventually fade and America will move on to whatever comes next. Then perhaps the difference between Bush and Obama in this regard will become even more stark. While the policy is perhaps less prone to cause near-term political damage, the nature of mistakes now being made ensure an opportunity to move forward - as is slowly appearing for many caught in Bush-era blunders - will never exist for the victims of Obama's drone war excess. Humanity rendered to blood, dust and bone can never heal.

Happy voting day.