Borrowing From the Bushies: Obama's Refusal to Release New Abu Ghraib Photos

Posted by Byard Duncan, AlterNet at 1:36 PM on May 28, 2009.

President Obama's political pussyfooting over the release of the new Abu Ghraib rape photos should not be taken lightly. After all, withholding important images on the grounds that their release would jeopardize troop safety is a tried and true Bush administration tactic. Remember the censorship debacle involving those flag draped coffins in 2004? This statement from USAF Col. Laurel Warish might jog the ol' memory box:

Due to recent events and increased risk to personnel, military and civilian, the Department of Defense has revised its policy and will no longer release names of personnel or other personally identifying information...

Release would jeopardize the safety of personnel assigned as well as constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

Now compare that to what Obama said earlier this month about the new Abu Ghraib photos:

The most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to inflame anti-American public opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.

Look familiar? Both statements carry the assumption that Americans should not have to witness the consequences of the war we are waging. It's precisely this distance - this carefully etched emotional fissure -- that facilitates the war's continuance. Didn't Obama run on the platform of bringing U.S. troops home? Maybe I misheard him. All those times.

Starry-eyed Obamaniacs might claim that the current administration's February repeal of the media ban on photographing U.S. coffins sets it apart somehow - that at least Obama took a step in the right direction.
But that action hinges on the same fiction of American benevolence that underpins our unwillingness to look at the other brutalities we have caused. Accompanying the decision to repeal the ban on photographing U.S. soldiers' coffins was a provision that families must be asked first. I wonder if the U.S. will ask prisoners' families whether or not it's okay to show their son or daughter being subjected to sexual torture.

Finally, it's worth taking a look at what Defense Secretary Robert Gates said upon lifting the ban three months ago:

From a personal standpoint, I think, if the needs of the families can be met, and the privacy concerns can be addressed, the more honor we can accord these fallen heroes, the better.

So we do get to see images of war's true meaning - as long as it's positioned as an honorable sacrifice.

This is no time to ignore pressing, brutal realities. It's time for the American people to look this war square in the face. It's also time for Obama to let us do so.

Tagged as: politics, war, iraq, torture, terrorism, obama, soldiers, afghanistan, abu ghraib