Quote of the Day
Like most Americans, we have not yet seen the images [new torture photos] and don’t know what they’ll portray. But until they’re made public, they seem likely only to inflame the imaginations of America’s friends and enemies. The worst will be assumed. And let’s not forget Obama’s promise, on his second day in office, to “hold myself as president to a new standard of openness.”
Tags: President Obama, torture
Obama was elected, in part, for his discernment. I’m not troubled by this decision.
The real reason that he is not releasing the pictures is because he does not want the political pressure to prosecute the perpetrators to increase. Also, these pictures would be exhibit 1 in any international war crimes trials.
Hopefully, he’ll lose in court, but what a disappointment he has been in this area.
I agree with A1, that he doesn’t want to have a torture investigation. That’s why I think it is important to force him to have one, and not a whitewash but a real investigation. I also think he’s throwing a bone to some in the military and CIA who will no doubt try to make his life miserable, especially with any changes he’s proposing.
Here’s another quote from the editorial:
One of the results of the release of the Abu Grab(?) photos was an increase in the killing of Americans in Iraq. This is a concern for the president. Just saying.
CHANGECHANGECHANGECHANGEHOPE
Thanks for playing Tom S. Now go back to The Republic of Texas.
I’m sure congress doesn’t want the photos made public ……. they gave the ok to torture.
No they didn’t, but thanks for playing.
LOL
This is certainly a troubling development and I am not going to give the Obama administration a free pass just because I’m a Democrat. That being said, isn’t he a little right? Its one thing to talk about torture, its another thing to see it. While in a perfect world only torture advocates would be forced to see these, in our world everyone will.
Here’s my take on it. I want the pictures released. However, I also want the people responsible for the pictures to be exposed. And I don’t mean some 20 something MP that was “having fun” at the expense of the Iraqi prisoners. I am talking about knowing the orders that came down that made the MP think this was OK.
The trials of the Abu Ghraib offenders so far has been a miscarriage of justice. I want the people that allowed this to happen to be sent to Leavenworth for a long time.
“Miscarriage of justice” – I agree LG, but showing more photos of abuse will have no impact on the justice piece. That can be handled by Congressional hearings to generate evidence, followed by prosecution by the Justice Department. Or, we could have a special prosecutor assigned. We cannot, as Obama wants, to not look back but only move forward instead.
Obama is concerned about further political polarization and being distracted. On polarization, no, it cannot get more polarized than we already have. On being distracted, that is controlled by astute management, of which Obama has already demonstrated himself to be well capable.
Scared Dick Cheney and daughter Liz are conducting a preemptive strike against Congress and the President to save BushCo rear ends. We must not be deterred!
I support the President’s decision as he is responding to concern from the military. If I had a son or daughter in the military, I would applaud Obama’s flip-flop. And I admire him for being willing to take the political hits from his own party that go with it.
Now honestly, what good will it do to bring out more photos that basically tell no more of the same story than what we’ve already seen?