The President makes the right call

I think that President Obama made the right decision in not releasing any more photos depicting prisoner abuse.  I agree with the conservatives on this issue but probably not for identical reasons.  

The photos that we have seen to date are so vulgar, so vile, that we have probably lost the ability to be shocked and there are no lessons left to be answered by disclosure of additional images.  What purpose would be served  for us to have a public beating of the breast and rending of the garment? The Torquemadas among us are so convinced of the righteousness of their cause that they are beyond the capacity to feel guilt.  The rest of us are long since inured to the depths that we have sunk.

There are apparently few ethical lines our government will not hasten to cross during the torture/interrogation process.  No one who has been seriously following any of this for the past several years can honestly admit any surprise at anything that the past administration was willing to do.  Today, evidence was presented that prisoners were tortured in order to provide evidence of an imaginary Al Qaeda/Iraq link.

It is my understanding that there have been over two hundred investigations launched to date regarding these photos.  Release of them at this point would further inflame the arab/muslim world and make more Americans possible targets for violence and reprisal.  I think that the military and administration would like to move on. Does that mean no accountability?  No, but I think a bipartisan investigation does not necessarily have to be performed in the public view with such inflammatory material.

Am I ashamed of our behavior? Yes. Do I think that the ACLU (an organization of which I was once a member) has to run the show? No way.  Are there any new secrets to be gleaned by publication of the material? Not likely.  Could the photo's release endanger the American military? Quite possibly. 

Of course, conservatives have used the occasion of his decision to label Obama as a flip flopper, since he is not fitting into the neat little cartoon image they have created of him. The far left is grumbling for vengeance and disclosure. To serve what purpose?  The right will contend that he was forced into this reversal by the goading of the former Vice President. I think that on the contrary, he is being very smart and prudent. On a quite tangential note, FBI interrogator Ali Soufan today testified that the non coercive interrogation he performed was the only productive method and that detainees actually clammed up when the nasty stuff started occurring. Are you listening, Dick Cheney?

Obama has made several decisions that I do not agree with lately, relating to polar bears and environmental issues amongst other things.  I think that is maybe a good thing. He is much more pragmatic than given credit for and appears to want to govern more from the center than some of his supporters would prefer.  That just might help the healing in this country down the road.  Although I wouldn't take odds on it.