House of Eratosthenes

Obama Shifts on Abuse Photos
Releasing Images of Detainee Mistreatment Would Endanger U.S. Troops, President Says

President Obama says the detainee abuse photos he wants to block from release are “not particularly sensational” but would endanger U.S. troops if publicized.

A month after making public once-classified Justice Department memos detailing the Bush administration’s coercive methods of interrogation, President Obama yesterday chose secrecy over disclosure, saying he will seek to block the court-ordered release of photographs depicting the abuse of detainees held by U.S. authorities abroad.

Obama agreed less than three weeks ago not to oppose the photos’ release, but he changed his mind after viewing some of the images and hearing warnings from his generals in Iraq and in Afghanistan that such a move would endanger U.S. troops deployed there.

“The publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals,” Obama said yesterday. “In fact, the most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in danger.”

DaveW is honked off about it:

All Obama is doing here is endorsing the unitary executive crap that was the hallmark of Bush/Cheney. It’s ridiculous to argue that more photos will harm Americans more than demonstrating to the world that their hopes for for an America they could respect again were in vain.

I’m sure the pressure from the military was intense, but OF COURSE they don’t want any more outing of their malfeasance. That has nothing to do with American security. This looks like nothing more than caving to the worst elements in America in a clumsy attempt to make some political points — an attempt that will fail miserably. The honeymoon is over starting now.

Lots of discussion in that thread, and it’s interesting stuff. National security issues, threats against soldiers still out there, et al…suddenly, now that a President with a D after His name is arguing about such things, these make sense to the deranged leftist mind. DaveW is actually in something of a minority in saying the honeymoon is over — for now.

It’s a fascinating window into human psychology. We’ve seen before that when two tribes are fighting each other, and a third tribe enters the picture imposing a threat on those two, the two former enemies are suddenly best buddies, and ultimately meld together as one. Conversely, if two tribes are fighting and one of them bites the mat hard — Republicans, in this case — the one tribe that is left standing, splits in half and nurses a brand new fetid rotting open-wound schism.

It seems there is something in our programming that is hard-wired for the number two.

As far as the Republicans…well, that’s interesting. There is a spectrum of “death” in politics, you know. You can be kinda-sorta dead, you can be really-really dead. The “dead” where you’re like the Whig party, never comin’ back again, is way the hell out there. Political parties are like live coals, always ready to ignite again. The far more convenient kind of dead, where you’ve been placed in a position of dissent and nothing is your fault, is a lot more commonplace.

The wish that has emerged as a unifying and primary one over at the slobbering-lefty places, is that conservatives in general could be the fantastical-never-happens-really-extinct kinda dead, but that everything that goes wrong could still be their fault. This is why, although they may prevail in this election or that one, they’ll never be completely sane. This is a wish that won’t happen, anywhere in human politics, for as long as the sun rises and sets. They’d be far better off abandoning this wish. But they won’t.

Reality is not on board with it. “Can’t blame Republicans; there aren’t any” is the motto in every single city, and every single state, that is running into financial, cultural and logistical trouble. And, this year, slowly but surely, bit by bit, it is becoming the motto over the nation overall, as well. We were supposed to be so happy and full of hope when we put the lefties in charge. And all we seem to have is the shattered remains of a honeymoon, tainted and ruined from the very beginning, that is “over starting now.”

Thus ends our experiment with putting the kids in charge of things. They can’t even agree among themselves about what’s wonderful anymore, let alone come up with a workable plan — they’re ready to do their one-tribe-split-in-half thing. Now we have to spend a few years following through.

Cross-posted at Right Wing News.

Funny, at first I read “The Honeymoon is starting over now”. Like they were falling in love all over again.

Well, Barack’s right on this one. He was only too happy when the others were released to use it to bash the previous president, but now that … let’s just say, “Mission Accomplished” re getting in to office, he seems to have found his “sensible” bone.

On the one hand, this is all out in the open now, and his rhetoric is correct. This will not help anyone other than those who already believe that waterboarding is torture, and therefore anything else that was being done by the Bush Administration did was torture, look at the torture. Bush-torture torture-Bush-torture torture. Cheney Vader Halliburton. Torture-Vader-Cheney. Repeat it often enough and it will become true. Halliburton. America Bad. Change. Revolution. Socialism. Rah rah.

Only now we’re finding out that some of the most vocal, rabid, vindictive critics of the alleged torture were briefed ahead of time on what methods we had and said nothing. So they’re starting to squirm. So maybe they really don’t want this debate to get too heated now. Might shed too much light in places they don’t want light shed.
- philmon | 05/14/2009 @ 11:37
I seem to remember a certain “splitology” (I made that up) by the vanquished as well.
A: What can we try to appeal to a broader range of “victim” sympathy?
Who’s skirt can I hide behind? Who’s tent can we enter?
B: That which doesn’t kill me serves only to make me stronger!
No more Mr. nice guy! There is no such title as second place.

Good riddance to “moderate” RINO rubbish. Hwaak- Ptuii on” Blue Dog” Dems.
(Insert Sam Adams, etc…HERE)

I’d hate to think that a Libertarian Party (Independent WHERE ALLOWED?) must rise to become the new force of
“There is DO, and there is DO NOT.There is no TRY“.

It’s only been 233 years (or so) since the LAST time.
- CaptDMO | 05/14/2009 @ 13:32
It would be a great sign if, say, 1/4 f the country decided to get behind the Libertarian Party if only as A) a message two “Big Politics” that there are lots of people who aren’t gonna take it anymore (with nods to Twisted Sister) and B) to wishy-washy America thit it’s ok to throw out “Big Politics” … that would be the Donks and the ‘Phants … and vote for what you believe in, not against the one you believe in least.

However … unless a charismatic leader comes along to take up that mantle with an “L” after his or her name coupled with honest, fair media coverages with rise of that leader, it ain’t gonna happen.

Which is why I’d like to encourage the ‘Phants to deepen their base rather than widen it.
- philmon | 05/14/2009 @ 15:38

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“The Honeymoon is Over Starting Now”Thursday, May 14th, 2009

“The Honeymoon is Over Starting Now”
Thursday, May 14th, 2009