Here we go again -- hiding facts from the world (especially the American people) about what was done IN OUR NAME by the Bush/Cheney administration to prisoners of war.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is seeking to block the immediate release of hundreds of photos showing U.S. personnel allegedly abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.
An Obama administration official said Wednesday that the president told his legal advisers last week that releasing the photos would endanger U.S. troops. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions were private.
Obama wants the issue to go back to the courts, although federal appeals judges have ruled the photos could be released.
I'm sorry Mr. President but while you may have good intentions, I have to disagree. If we Americans claim that we are a nation of moral values and higher standards then most; then all the facts need to be released for all the world to see.
First of all, if we hide away the facts about the way our leadership treated prisoners, how on earth do we have the right to criticize any other nation such as North Korea, Iran, Yemen or Saudi Arabia about the way they treat their prisoners?
Secondly, if these photos are ‘that bad’ then perhaps it’s conclusive proof (besides the confessions of form Vice President Dick Cheney and others that we tortured, "but it was legal", they say) that the Bush/Cheney administration did indeed allow the torturing of prisoners.
Release the photos President Obama, with the stipulation that you will be recommending to your Attorney General that he take steps to hire a special prosecutor to investigate any and all possible war crimes committed during the past 7 years.
While I don’t wish harm to any of our military folks, they are already in harms way, whether you release the photos or not. Now that it’s been mentioned in the news that you’d rather ‘not’ release them -- this will still anger American haters and put our military in more danger because they'll know we are hiding our worse sins.
The bad guys will hear those words Mr. President and know that we did indeed do terribly wrong things to our prisoners. They will repeat this story across their countries trying to recruit more terrorists.
Showing the pictures would just be additional way for Americans to come face to face with our sins and it could also tell our enemies and allies that we are ashamed of doing these things and will never do them again. It also tells them that we don't HIDE from our sins.
UPDATE:
I'm sure the Nazi Germans would have liked that we STOPPED showing photos of their torturing/gassing innocent Jews too; but thankfully somebody wanted to record history.