Okay, I'm going to reach for my hope bong once again.

This may not be the blow to the cause of prosecuting (or at least investigating) torture that it seems on its face.  In fact, I tend to agree that releasing the photos could in fact be more damaging than helpful.  

If there is going to be any motion on this issue, it is going to begin on Capital Hill.  Eric Holder is not going to stick his neck out on this until all of his other options are exhausted.  Obama the same, but more so.  

And while the photos may have served to generate short-term outrage and therefore calls to action, I will believe for the time being that Congress plans to do its job.  I will also believe for the time being that once Congress does its job, the finished product will force Holder to look into these matters from a DOJ perspective.  

No one is going to prison over this, but some careers may be ruined.  Whether this serves as a disincentive for future would-be torturers is anybody's guess.  But it's better than just letting the whole issue die quietly.

It is my hope that these pictures, while depicting atrocities, are depicting behavior that is firmly in our past. With that hope in mind I find myself cautiously agreeing with the President on this one. We have troops in harms way who surely did not take part in such atrocities. We want to keep those troops safe and, Iraq, wind down the conflict. Releasing these pictures would do nothing to bring that sordid conflict to a close.

I am going to sound in on the side of caution here as well.  There is a time to put these photos out, but for once I believe the POTUS is putting the welfare of the soldiers ahead of the careers of politicians or their underlings.  If you want to deal with Pakistand and A-stan while WINDING DOWN Iraq, then putting new fuel on the fire (that the US is a BAD country) is not a really good idea.

I would rather see them released in January of 2013 after Obama has successfully pulled us out of Iraq, dealt with A-stan and P-stan, and gotten us on the road away from fossil fuels, and, oh, gotten re-elected.  A few years of old-fashioned US Good will, that we had forgotten for the last 8 years, should blunt the trauma these photos may cause.

Does no see what the Pres is doing here?  He has been doing it for two months.  It is called the drip drip information dump.  Every couple of weeks they admin puts out additional damaging memos, photos, whatever.

So BO (and just to put this into context if voted for HRC) waits two months to put this out.  So what.  This is good politics and a smart move.  It makes the right look bad and then when the court orders the Admin to relase the photos in two months they can say they had no choice.

Seriously what is the down side here.

As much as i wanted HRC to win i want BO to win a 2nd term and this is smart politics, period.

d

This is not surprising. You want surprising news here it is:

The credit card capping bill failed in the senate today 33-60.

Hmm makes me wonder if Obama, he who is giving a talk on credit card regulation soon, will actually put his money where his mouth is or is it just more window dressing, you know like the torture memos with no plans to prosecute, mortgage relief bills with no WH clout and healthcare legislation without a single-payer representation and a watered-down public plan. Oh well!!

I don't have an issue with him not releasing the photos... there's a million legitimate reasons not to, but he chose Fox News' and Dick Cheney's reasoning, which both vindicates and validates them from this time forward.

Now Dick Cheney rules Obama's world, and Dick Cheney is going to be setting the standards for defense policy.

That's a big mistake on Obama's part...  he should have never validated the right wing like he did...

Why my misfortune?

Obama is making the right decision by not releasing the photos. The whole world knows what happened, why put lives at risk simply to gratify the over indulged curiosity of the masses?

Where art thou liveth in the Outlands these days?