Re: [Peace-discuss] It's just too embarassing…

[Jenifer Cartwright]

I'm still thinking it's political posturing on Obama's part -- he's gotta to stay in the good graces of all and sundry "operatives" (by appearing to protect them when it's easy to do so) so they don't mess things up for him (and us) in the future (e g allowing another homeland attack on his watch, etc)... AND I'm hoping that somebody else -- Int'l Red Cross? NY Review of Books? or ? -- will go ahead and release the damned photos asap, thus making Obama's position moot.
 
Obama's stance on Af-Pak is something else again. I don't think there's anything to "get" wrt justification on that -- NO idea what he's thinking, but his conclusions are totally indefensible and unacceptable.
 --Jenifer

--- On Thu, 5/14/09, Brussel Morton K. <mkbrussel at comcast.net> wrote:


From: Brussel Morton K. <mkbrussel at comcast.net>
Subject: [Peace-discuss] It's just too embarassing…
To: "peace-discuss Discuss" <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
Date: Thursday, May 14, 2009, 12:42 PM


The sinking feeling only grows: The more time passes, the more Obama looks like another disaster for hopes for a more humane, enlightened, open, administration. Is he hollow, gutless, continuing proponent of empire, or what--- to be doing what he's doing? 


This, regarding Obama's flip-flopping on "abuse" photos (withholding them now because it would embarrass "us"),  from Glen Greenwald:  


http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/14-8


Note also the video attached. 



…Moreover, isn't it rather obvious that Obama's decision to hide this evidence -- certain to be a prominent news story in the Muslim world, and justifiably so -- will itself inflame anti-American sentiment?  It's not exactly a compelling advertisement for the virtues of transparency, honesty and open government.  What do you think the impact is when we announce to the world:  "What we did is so heinous that we're going to suppress the evidence?"  Some Americans might be grateful to Obama for hiding evidence of what we did to detainees, but that is unlikely to be the reaction of people around the world.
If we're actually worried about inflaming anti-American sentiment and endangering our troops, we might want to re-consider whether we should keep doing the things that actually spawn "anti-American sentiment" and put American soldiers in danger.  We might, for instance, want to stop invading, bombing and occupying Muslim countries and imprisoning their citizens with no charges by the thousands.  But exploiting concerns over "anti-American sentiment" to vest our own government leaders with the power to cover-up evidence of wrongdoing is as incoherent as it is dangerous.  Who actually thinks that the solution to anti-American sentiment is to hide evidence of our wrongdoing rather than ceasing the conduct that causes that sentiment in the first place?
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