But what if instead of just throwing the images out there, the release were part of an announcement of an official, public inquiry of some kind, coupled with a draft departure schedule? There just might be enough people in Iraq who are astute enough to point out that at least we’re doing something about it now and getting ready to go, and encourage others to get along with Iraqi business. Whether anyone writes headlines about it or not, it has seemed for a couple of years now as if there’s a powerful tendency in the direction of getting on with it in Iraqi society; maybe some of those bsd psy-ops folk we’re supposed to have can help set up a campaign that would make the whole thing seem credible long enough for it actually to get done.

At this point, anything short of an amnesty-granting body would be fine with me, so long as the issue can finally stop taking up precious psychic space. I hope Pres. Obama realizes that the matter of torture is going to be in his way until it is confronted, just because it’s the nature of the thing.

No, there was NEVER ANY moral claim, NO valid justification, for being there. To even suggest there could have been is Overton Window stuff.

just out of curiosity, did you vote for the guy?

yes/no, how do you feel about that?

I didn’t, no way I would’ve, and I feel great about it, especially when photos of civilian victims in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq are going around.

Progressives cheering on their new quarterback would do well to contemplate such photos – they are a logical outcome of what they supported.

All the article REALLY gives as attribution is the phrase captured above.

This is NOT a reliable sourcing job, this is NOT a reliable article, and it reeks of US Military/Pentagon spin.

Please consider this information when reflecting on the pro’s/cons’s of releasing the pics.

I believe this article was spin, spin, spin. YMMV.

The White House and Congress take their current, incoherent approach to the wars because they want to avoid the asking of the above questions at all costs. Official Washington realizes that, once the focus of interest in the wars turns inwards, there will be consequences. The process will take on a life of its own and no one in power will be safe.

“Newly released photos depicting abuse of detainees in U.S. military custody in Afghanistan and Iraq would negatively affect the ongoing efforts by Pakistan to counter its internal extremist threat,” wrote Petraeus, the chief of U.S. Central Command.

U.S. allies in the region already “struggle with their populations’ perceptions that they are merely instruments of the U.S. government and do not have their citizens’ best interests at heart,” and releasing the images “would likely deal a particularly hard blow” to American efforts in those countries, he stated.

He predicted that a likely result of the photos’ release would be “civil unrest via spontaneous demonstrations in Pakistan’s largest cities.” “

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITI…..ee.photos/

To Scarecrow @ 40, Obama knows what the nation has done, but how’d you like to be in his position? Don’t release the photos, catch (justified) flak from the Dem base, release the photos, and an increase in US troop deaths becomes a reality if Maliki is correct.