Is this Retard Trying to Kill Our Troops?
This is not poor judgment and it is much worse than petty retribution. This will get US troops killed!
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration agreed late Thursday to release dozens of photographs depicting alleged abuse by U.S. personnel during the Bush administration of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan.
At least 44 pictures will be released by May 28 — making public for the first time images of what the military investigated as abuse that took place at facilities other than the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Defense Department officials would not say exactly what is contained in the photos, but said they are concerned that the release could incite a backlash in the Middle East.
Backlash = dead soldiers!
This is a classic example of how to un-win a war. Obama should be charged with every death that results from this idiotic and frankly, murderous idea. Who the hell could possibly think this is a good idea?
“This will constitute visual proof that, unlike the Bush administration’s claim, the abuse was not confined to Abu Ghraib and was not aberrational,” said Amrit Singh, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which obtained the agreement as part of a long-running legal battle for documents related to Bush-era anti-terror policies.
Un-Frigging-believable!
April 24th, 2009 at 9:54 am
I heard it this morning on my car radio and almost crashed, I was so furious I was seeing red… Anything else I have to say about this is a one long bleeeeeep
April 24th, 2009 at 10:10 am
I was expecting to see the leftists and the media go through hoops trying to tie the memos Gitmo to the abuses at Abu Gharib. CNN even ran a story saying that Karpinski’s incompetence was vindicated by the memos. What I did NOT expect to see was our seated Administration do exactly the same thing.
April 24th, 2009 at 10:22 am
So the Obama administration caved into the ACLU (no surprise there) and will release pictures alleging abuse during the Bush admiinistration. I don’t even know where to begin on how treasonous this is. From the idiots that put their criminal acts on YouTube to the highest levels of Government, are none of them smart enough to understand the basic premise, you don’t photograph anything you don’t want the world to see. Yet here we are, years after the fact, releasing photos to an obliging MSM that will surely print them in places that lost their collective minds over cartoons. Defense Department officials are worried about a “bashlash”? You think? My mind glazes over at the galactic stupidity of this administration.
April 24th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Wow, our troops lives imperiled by their own CIC!
April 24th, 2009 at 10:28 am
And this is how a leader behaves????
He jsut really wants the troops to be targeted. He is going to reverse what success has been achieved because he wants to “prove” shit? WTF????
Barack “The COW” Obama says: See, I just knew this guy wasn’t on the up and up and NOW that I ARE the boss, I get to do whatever makes me look good and Bush bad
Of all the times for GWB to come out and not give a smackdown, he surely needs to do something!!!! It’s time, sir, it’s really time. Don’t let that SFB Obama do anymore damage!!
April 24th, 2009 at 10:41 am
I just spent a few minutes on the CBS News comment boards for this same subject. Usually the CBS boards are a seething mass of BDS. On this though, surprisingly, the vast majority of comments are running against it, with only a few foaming-mouth-breathers who think it’s the right thing to do.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:00 am
The CIC trying to get troops killed! Hmmm…maybe next he’ll stand in the Whitehouse and say, “There are some who feel they should attack us there. My answer is Bring ‘em on.” Or maybe he could order hundreds of people locked up for eight or nine years without charge. Or Oh yeah, he could order the policy that created the circumstances for the pictures in the first place.
It sucks, but we need to be transparent about this. All of the memos need to come out. All of the meeting records. There needs to be a special prosecutor to investigate this policy.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:01 am
I like DrewM’s response over at AoSHQ: ‘If, God forbid, there’s an attack on US soil during Obama’s term, I don’t want to hear “sorry about that” from him, Sullivan, Greenwald/Ellers and the rest. I want them to man up and say, “this is an acceptable price to pay for not being mean to those misunderstood Islamists”.’
Also, at times like these I’m so glad I’m a contractor and not enlisted. Not that I’m going to quit over this, but I’m sure something stupid like this will one day come down my pipe. So nice to be able to say, “That’s it I’m done.” anytime I want.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:24 am
And if that is not bad enough, check this out.
Ok, yesterday and today there was several suicide bombings that killed and wounded a lot of people. I found out about it early because by chance I was at the base TMC when they got a request more medical supplies to help with a mass causality. So I knew before I read that the majority where Iranians. I guess (correctly) that they might be pilgrims for a religious day that I do not know about.
Anyways, I am reading this article that a local religious leader is talking about how these extremists are using religion to damage religion.
“The incident (in Iraq) yesterday was a very, very hateful example of those who harm religion in the name of religion,”
Ok, perhaps with more of the population gets the message of who these attackers truly are, the faster they can get rid of them. Then comes this gem.
“We feel sorry for the Iraqi people because such corrupt groups have penetrated into Iraq. We also criticize America for not having the serious will to preserve Iraq’s security,” Rafsanjani added.”
Yea because staying in Iraq for almost seven years with people doing two or three plus tours here is just not serious enough.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:25 am
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090424/ts_nm/us_iraq
April 24th, 2009 at 11:26 am
I’m going to come out and say that I think it’s a good idea. Transparency is what’s needed-not secrecy. Would anyone say the same, that the government deserved the right to hide the evidence, if it was American POWs being abused?
Honesty. What really shouldn’t have happened were the acts in the first place.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:34 am
“What really shouldn’t have happened were the acts in the first place.”
Yeah, and if I had wheels I’d be a wagon.
I’m sure some useless self flagellation over an issue that’s in the past will certainly help us in the future.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:43 am
“releasing photos to an obliging MSM that will surely print them in places that lost their collective minds over cartoons.”
Yup, nobody seems to fathom that what is seen as being up front and honest will be interpreted WAAAY different in M.E. & S.W. Asian cultures. Gawd,if I had a nickle for every PSYOPS product that flopped due to cultural ignorance, the deficit would be a surplus…
April 24th, 2009 at 11:45 am
It’s not an issue about not being mean to the Islamists. The issue is creating policy that is in line with our values. This nation does not torture for several reasons not least of all that torture produces false information.
It sucks that we have to bring this to light, but it has to be done. It should have never happened in the first place.
COB6 Wrote: If the issue is creating policy, then create a damn policy. Releasing these photos is not creating policy, it is inciting violence! People will die for absolutely no reason beyond political grandstanding.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:53 am
I actually concur with Army Sergeant on this, this shit should have never occurred in the first place. That amounts to shitty leadership and shitty NCO’s for allowing a lapse in discipline long enough for these acts to happen, and in a combat zone, in a foreign country whose populace we are still trying to win over, it is downright UNACCEPTABLE! It makes my job over there even harder to do, and winning hearts and minds over there is tough enough to do.
April 24th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Well said Lucky. I think that this was part of the plan not just a lapse in discipline. The whole sordid mess needs to be thrown out on the table for all to see.
April 24th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
But at what cost?
April 24th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Ask me about the cost in six months……
April 24th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Yeah, exactly what will be the cost? Every last POW-MIA of ours was mutilated and tortured to death, save Altaie, the Iraqi-American who hopped the fence, and if he’s not dead, I suspect he’s a turncoat.
I don’t see folks in the ME or SW Asia pulling their hair out over our tortured to DEATH guys…
April 24th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Thats exactly why I said ask me in six months………….. Or have TSO ask me in two months
April 24th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
The term blowback as Chalmers Johnson describes it is the unitended consequences of government action that has been kept secret so that when something happens people ask why.
Evyerone here is assuming that admitting what the rest of the world already knows is bad. The fact is this has been talked about for years. people already know this. We put it out and move on. What needs to happen, is that we need to be much more careful making enemies than we have been for the past 50 years.
Jonn wrote: Yeah, “the rest of the world”. The same “rest of the world” who treats their own citizens worse than we treat our enemies. Nice try.
April 24th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
“Lucky Says: Ask me about the cost in six months……”
Some of us like to do our risk assessments BEFORE we do things or support things.
Not figure out what they were six months down the road.
April 24th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Not if the last eight years are any example.
April 24th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Spade, I will be DIRECTLY affected by this disclosure of photographs shortly, if you want to know why, ask TSO, he knows why.
April 24th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Its an OPSEC thing
April 24th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Lucky:
I’m sorry you will be directly affected. There is nothing about this situation that doesn’t suck.
April 24th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
A/S,
[...if it was American POWs being abused]
Who have we gotten back from them that hasn’t been beheaded?
April 24th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Oh well, no worries, just gotta embrace the suck, right?
April 24th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Hell I am in Iraq right now, so yea this kinda affects me.
April 24th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
See ya in a couple months spork!
April 24th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
I have to respectfully disagree with HM2. You’re contention that torture produces false information is a generalization. According to the records KSM was interrogated with “advanced” techniques, using the approved administration nomenclature of the day. The information gathered directly from those interrogation sessions was actionable and resulted in the breakup of another terrorist plot in Los Angeles.
But he is also correct. This never should have happened, and as Lucky said, came from a breakdown of leadership. I am speaking specifically of the prison detainees, such as those in Abu Ghraib. One of those first things I learned in basic was the Geneva Conventions, and as they used to be called the 5 S’s of POW handling. Search, Segregate, Silence, Speed, and Safeguard. As an NCO I never, ever would have allowed my soldiers to treat a detainee in such an inhuman manner. I was appalled when the news came to light on these abuses.
I think the big question is what purpose will be served by releasing the photos? If what you say is true and they already know all this, then their release can only inflame and stroke anger. More kindling on a simmering Arab street. The soldiers on the corner check point, once looked at with indifference, will that soldier now suffer a sniper attack, or IED, or VBIED from this stroked anger? If there is a corner of the world that doesn’t know, then what purpose does this type of national self flagellation serve?
April 24th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
It serves a political purpose. Its their way of saying “Republicans bad! Vote Democrat, keep us in power forever and ever!”
April 24th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Gonna Get Joes Killed for no reason.
Hadji will see pictures without context(as will the world), Assume the worst and decide to get revenge.
Way to go Obama you schmuck.
Fuck the ACLU
April 24th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
This one act alone is enough to impeach this charachter. Absolutely disgusting and truly beyond description and comprehension. Mr. Obama (I refuse to use the title of President) you need to step down now and get out of an arena you are neither qualified or able to be in. This is being done in the name of socialist partisan politics. Your party does not care and still does not care one whit about the lives of AMERICAN SOLDIERS…AMERICAN…do you understand the meaning of AMERICAN?!?!?! I think not.
April 24th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
#33 Sean, you said it all, very eloquently. The Obamunist has no clue, either on how to be a President, or CiC. We’ll end up paying the price for his amateurism.
April 24th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
I have GOT to agree with Sean and UpNorth.I just CANNOT comprehend the reasoning behind this goatf**k of an idea!!!
Maybe the ONE is starting to show his true anti-American,Pro Islamist side! I suppose the honeymoon is now officially over.And these clueless,left wing bastards are wondering why gun and ammo sales have gone thru the friggin roof.We are about to be SOOOO SCREWED! But unfortunately, not as bad as our troops!
April 24th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
The result of electing an honor less street thug. I hope those who voted for this clown are happy. How many will equate an increase in coffins coming home to this travesty?
April 24th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
What really has me worried is the response of SecDef Gates and JCS ADM Mullen. Very disappointed with both of them. To paraphrase Gates, “The information would have gotten out anyways.” So why do we bother with classifying anything anymore, if that is the attitude the SecDef has towards security. Guess every liberal forgets that the muj have long memories. Retirement can’t come fast enough. I am so ready to get off this ride.
April 25th, 2009 at 6:35 am
HM2 said to Lucky: “I’m sorry you will be directly affected. There is nothing about this situation that doesn’t suck”. Yeah, so sorry GI, but we have to be “transparent” and worry about Muslim sensibilities, to hell with our guys.
Great attitude. But, it does fit with the COW’s, don’t it?
April 25th, 2009 at 6:53 am
Army Sergeant:
“Transparency is what’s needed-not secrecy.”
Good. Then you’ll agree when I say that Obama should also release a pictoral gallery of the bodies piled up by the ‘peaceful religion f Islam’, as well as the release the classified information gleaned from the interrogations, which will prove they were sucessful. Innumerable attacks and plots were stopped because of the methods we used. If you have a problem with that, you’re even more dense than I thought. What should have never happened was the worldwide atrocities committed by muslim terrorists. They don’t share your touchy-feely approach.
April 25th, 2009 at 6:54 am
typo–the release = release.
April 27th, 2009 at 12:06 am
We are waging war in other contries and in our own. These photos show that we are the terroist. Bush confirmed the new world order. oh, and God has no part of this!
April 27th, 2009 at 4:14 am
Hey sheepile, go back to sleep and have BDS nightmares somewhere else. If we are the terrorist where are the internet videos of us sawing the heads off of these assholes?
The point is this. It happened, we know it happened, publishing these pictures will do NOTHING but provide the terrorists with fodder to inflame the hatred for America all over again and cause an increase in attacks on our troops. The dead Americans that will result from this fiasco is a pretty steep price to pay for “feeling good about our transparency”.
AS,
Look at your troops. Which ones are you prepared to sacrifice on the alter of Political Correctness? We’ll let YOU explain to their widows and children how it’s all for the best. and their loved one’s life wasn’t more important than the knee jerk liberals getting in one more Bush Bash.
April 27th, 2009 at 6:32 am
It’s interesting how when the Bush made his bring ‘em on comment or Rummy had the gall to tell units going into Iraq that they didn’t have the gear they needed because “you go to war with the army you have” or when we had to hold bake sales to provide armor for our guys, y’all said nothing.
This partisan bullsh!t is getting people killed and you are no better than those you obviously hate.
April 27th, 2009 at 8:10 am
Uh, HM2, would that be the “partisan bullshit” that included screaming, “he betrayed us, he played on our fears”? Or, “Mr. President, this war is lost”? Is that the partisan bullshit you’re upset about? And, I think if you go back far enough, you’ll find that plenty was said about the comments you have your panties in a wad over.
Your opening reveals your BDS, you can’t get the first sentence out with out the snide comment about “the Bush”.
So, tell us again, how much the Urkelprompter cares for the troops and the field operatives?
April 27th, 2009 at 9:41 am
the treacherous traitorous Kenyan bastard should be arrested, put in chains along with Hanoi Jane, Swift Boat Kerry and the rest of the gutless POS who make up IVAW and other such groups… then sent off on a leaky boat to the Gulags. Or Somalia.
April 27th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Oh – BTW – word on the street is that Katie Couric will be revealing new photos of Obama on his knees before the Saudis, Iranians, Somalis, al-Quaidas and Hugo Hunchback Chavez as he makes oral diplomacy gestures.
ACORN is subsidizing his Chapstick expenditures.
April 27th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Blah, blah, blah blah. Wake me when J3 says something of value.
The day that Dachle decided that the Senate Dems should sign the blank check to indvade Iraq out of respect for the troops, I was so pissed off I sent a letter signed with rate and rank saying that we would be respected by an opposition party, not lap dogs.
There is plenty of blame to go around: Bill Clinton killed more Iraqis under the sanctions than George Bush has. Moreover, the Democrats in Congress have been culpable by going only halfway. Playing politics with American lives on many fronts.
My underoos are hauled up to my arpits about how most of the posters here seem to be constantly screaming “no.” “Dem bad Repub Good.” It’s a lot more complicated than that and I think most of the intelligent people here get that but don’t know how to package it and sell it.
April 27th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
[Bill Clinton killed more Iraqis under the sanctions than George Bush has]
Bull. Sadam killed those people by scaming and diverting aid.
April 27th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Sure. But what about the repeated refusal to allow medical aid in. Or allowing the aid but calling reffer trucks “dual use?” The point of the sanctions was to cause him to disarm not remove him from power. After the decision was made not to go into Iraq in 1991, then the only other choice was to go through the motions and replay the whole thing later for legitimate reasons. We moved the goal post and over two million common Iraqis payed the price.
April 27th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
That should have been reefer trucks not reffer trucks (whatever those are.)
April 27th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
HM-
With all due respect- you said,”Moreover, the Democrats in Congress have been culpable by going only halfway. Playing politics with American lives on many fronts.”
How the hell do the dems only go halfway? They read the same memos as the republicans did they not?
I’ll ask you what I ask other left-minded thinkers.
Are you ready to prosecute ALL who are complicit…including the former admin and the glaring reach it will have?
Would you have called Bush a moron if all it took was waterboarding to save the 10,000 people on the Brooklyn Bridge when he was holding a presser to tell you that “Gee, we had a little info, but it wasn’t anything to go on?”
Or are you sitting back happy that “only three’ terrorists were waterboarded and not looking at the fact that the troops are exposed whatever AQ can do to them given the chance? All because the President has decided to stick to Bush without thinking of the unintended consequences?
Are you a freaking BDS sufferer who says, even though you served, “I never asked for this war or supported it and Bush just needs to pay?” If so, you are a moron.
Frankly, I supported the war, so there was nothing to say. And yes, when the peace dividend was squandered under Billy Jeff, we had to go to war with shit that was less than stellar. We learned and paid the price and we have done our best to equip against the enemy.
Yes, the COWboy(citizen of the World)boy President will be getting our troops killed because he wants to appear like he is not appeasing and apologizing. But he has done just that. Where is your outrage to that? Wait, no. I call it espionage and acts of sedition, as it aids and abets the enemy.
You probably call it diplomacy. Idiot.
April 27th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Defend, way up in #7, HM says it’s all Bush’s fault. He even uses the “transparent” talking point, so no one should be surprised that he wants a special prosecutor, and that he tries to tie the actions of SP4’s and Sgt’s to Bush, cuz it was his policy that told them to do their frat pranks.
No mention of Billy Jeff’s policy of rendition, or his echelon program, of course.
April 27th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
DFA:
Thank you for your (mostly) well throught out response. Obviously you have some names that you like to call me an others who disagree with your limited world view. I have names that I could call you too. Lets just agree to keep it civil.
Any investigation must be bi-partisan and those who had authority to approve such tactics should be held accoutable regardless of party affiliation. Moreover, the lawyers that found the justification for the strategy should be disbarred. Military personnel about company grade should be evaluated and held accountable. (We were following our leader’s orders is not an excuse.)
Diplomacy is the answer as someone who has studies international relations and foriegn policy. Military action where needed should be part of any national security policy. However, leaving a critically under-manned and under supported force in Afghanistan in order to divert resources to a country that posed little or no threat was down right irresponsible.
Bush launched a series of policies that were ill-conceived and had no obvious end points. We cannot keep “detainees” in Gitmo indefinately. We cannot sustain a war in the ME indefinately. And even the Petraeus Doctrine (which I didn’t support) only works part way. There is still no end game. We are paying people not kill us. So what happens when the money runs out? What happens when the occupied population doesn’t see their “hope and change?”
I have said in other posts, “there is nothing about this that doesn’t suck.” But, we have to change the tone. We have to return to responsible foreign policy and we cannot keep hiding because the truth is inconvenient.
April 27th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
HM2…As a “student” of international relations and foreign policy, You are then aware that Diplomacy rarely works.If it was a successful venture,we would no longer have war or the need for a military!It is a sad but true fact that the only truly successful Diplomacy is best at the end of a rifle barrel.The diplomatic methods used by governments is usually a temporary stop gap measure. The only way to “WIN” a war totally and unequivocally would be nuclear annihilation which is a losing proposition for everybody!This may “suck” but it’s the only game in town that has a chance of working.Ass Kissing and Oral sex acts performed by our politicians WILL not work,period!
April 27th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Hey Airborne – maybe WE should add a lot of fake initials after OUR names like POS (Retard) up there. That would make us as ubercool as him / her. Maybe ” Brg.Gen(H20)Adv, Sgt Maj 4F( Ret) Sec.8.”
Actually, I enjoy seeing the trolls like that assclown attempting to write on this blog for two reasons. One, they apparently take themselves seriously, which is a joke in itself. And two, I know it keeps them down in Mom’s basement writing on the laptop she bought with her meager paycheck, so the libtard basement dwellers are not in her way while she cleans the house up. Most of the people who write that gibberish have never served, never held a steady job outside of Mickey D’s, and live on a couch in Mom’s basement, fantasizing that they will someday ‘make it’. The sad truth is – the only people who would have them would be the IVAWs, Blue Falcon Division.
Troll on, HMO ;o)Troll on!
April 27th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
The current CiC doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the troops.
April 27th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
J3:
Be sure to tell COB6 and Ah1 Cassel that they are faker and basement swellers too. Looks like you ran out of legitmate critiscm so you have to throw the fake vet card. But, out of curisosity, why would I claim to be an e-5 if I wasn’t? Wouldn’t it be more fun to say I was a Col. or at least a Sgt.?
Grow up.
April 28th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Airborne Injun, sadly, even though HM2 claims to be a “student” of international relations and foreign policy, he has learned nothing from those masters of diplomacy, Neville Chamberlain and Francois Deladier. HM2 would apparently have tried to talk Saddam out of his WMD’s and nuke program. Oh wait, the UN tried that for 10 years or so. And talking has worked so well with Iran, I’m sure they just love Hillary’s giggle, not to mention Urkelprompter’s stellar performance on his overseas apology tour.