The Truth Hurts

It now occurs to the President of the United States that the release of more photos from Abu Ghraib prison might inflame anti-American opinion and endanger American troops abroad. Therefore, despite a promise not to impede further releases requested under the Freedom of Information Act, the Obama Administration will now attempt to prevent them. This is the sort of crap that leaves Democrats vulnerable to the double-standard charge. I can imagine Mr. Right saying it was alright to inflame anti-American sentiment and endanger the truths when it all reflected on a Republican president, but now things are different, huh?

Can new pictures really further inflame anti-American feeling where it already exists at high heat? If it can, what of it? The American people have an implicit right to see everything there is to see and know all that can be known. If the revelation makes foreigners more angry at us, the photos might prove that some of that anger might just be warranted. And anyone who says that my desire to know the truth endangers the troops is an idiot of the year. If more photos incite more violence, it will be the fault of the perpetrators in the pictures and the people who commanded them. But I sense that the President would rather us and them forget what happened rather than risk looking "partisan" by holding the appropriate people to account before the world.