arguing that the disclosure would fuel outrage and violate US obligations toward detainees under the Geneva Conventions.
But apparently the Obama administration doesn't particularly care. It's more concerned with placating the ACLU, an organization supposedly devoted to protecting the rights of Americans, but which has lately been much more interested in assisting our enemies.
Many people, including Obama himself and the ACLU leadership, make the argument that abuse of prisoners damaged the image of the U.S. worldwide and assisted the recruitment efforts of our enemies. These same people now want to release pictures further damaging the image of the U.S. The downside of providing free propaganda to our enemies and helping them recruit is apparently outweighed by the need to keep bashing the policies of the former administration.
Abuses, incidents, and outright crimes occur in all wars, especially unconventional conflicts. The time for obsessing over all the dirty details is after the war, not during it. Releasing all sorts of information about the misdeeds of your own side during the conflict provides direct help to the enemy in the form of free propaganda. I'm not sure why something so basic is lost on the Obama administration.
Because the administration is making it clear these abuses will not continue during this perpetual war. This isn't a short, conventional conflict. In the short-term, perhaps this release will help enemy propaganda, although I don't know how different it'll be from the pictures that are already available. But the release will also help the cause of justice, which for the long term is more important.
ReplyDelete"Because the administration is making it clear these abuses will not continue during this perpetual war."
ReplyDeleteHe already did that. And I generally support his efforts to clean up military interrogation procedures and the overall handling of prisoners. That doesn't require releasing details of every abuse.
"But the release will also help the cause of justice, which for the long term is more important."
It doesn't do anything for justice. It just publicizes past problems and puts them back in the news.