So the debate is ramping up over the latest reports of photos showing serious abuses at Abu Ghraib. If the reports are to believed this could be a very serious problem for the US. As I have said before I frequent the liberal blog ThinkProgress. The release of these photos has been a pretty hot topic of discussion.
Now it has been said by people on both sides that torture has hurt the US and that US Soldiers and the war effort has been hurt by these abuses and the photos which followed. So why would anyone want these new photos released?
I posed this question the other day on ThinkProgress during one of the threads. I said basically why would you release the photos one previous ones have been so damning and what would you hope to accomplish by doing so? The answer given by some to my second question goes along why to explaining the answers given to the first. Most people said they favored the release of the photos regardless of the reaction they cause. And the reason, most people think they can be used against Bush and Cheney.
As I have also said in the past there is little to no chance Bush and Cheney will ever be brought up on charges in the US and absolutely no chance of them be tried in a foreign country. I explained to some that there are too many people in the chain of command between the people who may have actually did this and Bush/Cheney that it would never get to them. Not to mention the fact that they would need proof that Bush/Cheney ordered the rape of these detainees which would be tough to prove. I said the "bad-apples" defense had been used once before and would probably be used again successfully, so there's really no chance that Bush/Cheney would face criminal charges if these photos show what they claim to show.
The thing that disturbs me most is that people would be willing to potentially increase terrorist recruitment and cause our Soldiers further harm just to try and get Bush/Cheney. This blood lust to see them convicted is starting to become a problem in my eyes. The more it seems Obama will not prosecute them, the more anger and reckless the left is getting. If the photos turn out to show everything they have said they do, then use them in a court of law and then lock them away. They don't do anybody any good. If those types of pictures did then we would see photos of rape victims and gun shot victims on the 6 o'clock news. Well we don't and I pray we don't ever.
One final thought on this issue. If these photos do exist, who takes pictures of these acts? And who is dumb enough to lose control of them when they do?
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As a lefty, I can only tell you what I would like to see as a result of these pictures released, and that is justice for those who were abused. If Bush and Cheney commited criminal acts they should also be brought to justice. Comparing these pictures and those of your local "rape and murder" is not the same thing, since the first is highly political and may never see any sort of investigatioin without popper exposure to the rest of the country, and the latter is typically crimes that are already being investigated, so no further media attention is necessary for justice to be had. As for troops being put at more risk, unfortunatley, we got ourselves into this mess. I have a friend over there now, and I know what it's like to have a loved one in harms way. But the point is I also empathize for those whose loved ones (and the victims themselves) have been hurt unjustly from our own government. All else equal, we need to do what is right over what is safe, and in the future the two should not be so at odds with each other because of bad policy. You may not like what I say, but let'st just engage in a thought experiment, and suppose that you were a victim of such abuses by the US or any other government. It is people like me (not that I'm any better than anyone else) who focus on human rights for all who would be the first to stick up for you. It is then that you me fully appreciate those pesky lefties.
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