After initially being a steadfast member of the "release them NOW!" camp regarding the torture photos/videos/etc. FOIA request that the Obama administration has decided to resist, I am now somewhat rethinking my stand -- but only on the condition that an independent prosecutor is appointed. And I am hoping that the administration is thinking this, too.
Here's the argument in a nutshell: Independently investigating first, avoiding the super-charged congressional context, and letting the wheels of justice turn in their slow, methodical (expensive) fashion, will frustrate those (like me) anxious for immediate, overdue accountability, but 1) allow the full Monty to be presented to the public if and when charges are brought forth, and mute the current GOP propaganda campaign by taking much of the debate offline temporarily; and 2) It will also allow us the get the frack out of Iraq in time, before such findings emerge many months and even years from now, by which time we can take at least most of our soldiers out of harms way there (and maybe even out of Afghanistan, too, if we're lucky!) before the evidence, including the photos, are released to a horrified but less politicized public and media.
Bear with me below the fold.
The central claim by the GOP and its apologists appears to be is that this is all a partisan Democratic witch hunt. This of course is complete bull, as Glenn Greenwald and many others have methodically argued, particularly given that some or even all of the Democratic resistance may be due to the realization of indirect Democratic silence at best, in not complicity at worst.
Sure, Chickhawk Cheney and his flying monkeys argue that the Justice Dept. said it was legal (even though they were already doing it before those ex post facto rationalizations and abominations of legal reasoning were issued by the eternal soul-selling Yoo and Bybee); that it saved us from imminent attack (disproved, and soon to be more disproved as further memos are released); and/or "Torture? What torture?!?"
But of course all that's just bullshite smokescreen to try to guilt the non-complicit Dems into caving and provide cover for the lame-arse traditional media Villagers for not (un)covering the story as they should have.
Point of fact: The torture photos WILL eventually come out. They are too radioactive not to. And so to my main argument:
IF the Obama administration wants to protect the troops, and the constitution of the United States, and our global reputation as a nation that, even when it fracks up, it still returns eventually to its founding principles, it will appoint a special prosecutor now.
The advantages are that a SP will diffuse some of the relentless drumbeat of "Drop it! Drop it! Drop it!..." that is polarizing and distorting the public debate, just by sheer dint of the slow process that will then have to occur to power-up and conduct said investigation. It will also clearly provide cover for the White House, which can then then refer all inquiries to the SP's office, and claim it cannot comment due to the ongoing nature of the process. And, lastly, it will be able to say, with all seriousness, that the potentially horrific additional photos that have not been seen are also part of the ongoing investigation -- and thus evidence, the release of which would compromise the SP's case.
It's win-win for the good guys, lose-lose for the bad.
But those photos will be seen, and be it later rather than sooner, the citizens of the United State of America in whose name that torture and depravity was committed have a moral, legal and constitutional right to have the truth will out. This wound will fester for generations unless it is exposed, cleaned and dressed, with a little necessary bleeding in the process. Our troops have already been put unnecessarily in harm's way by this crappy Iraq war and the douchebags who got us into it (vs. the much more justifiable and important Afghanistan war, at least way back in 2002, anyway).
In conclusion, if an SP is appointed, and the guilty, complicit, and/or morally bereft are methodically exposed, when the photos ARE released at the end of the investigation, it will be one big package in which we can say, "My god, in truth, we fracked up and lost our moral bearings. But here is justice done, the culprits identified and punished, and the sickening evidence of the fact that we are coming clean, and vow to never let this happen again."
UPDATE: Well, the basic argument that "The Photos Will Come Out" was posted just seconds before me by organicdemocrat, so FYI on this complementary diary.