We Can Handle the Truth

We use words like honor, code, loyalty...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use 'em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. ~ Col. Nathan Jessep, A Few Good Men

President Obama has concluded that he can't handle the truth about American interrogation techniques and has blocked the release of photos documenting the abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan. The excuse given is that releasing the photos would "endanger the troops." That's poppycock, of course. It is simply the traditional term used for a military cover-up.

What we have in the field in both Iraq and Afghanistan are a whole battalion of Col. Jesseps. Commanders who considered themselves gods able to authorize crimes and outrages against common decency with impunity. Had these commanders any concern at all for the safety of their troops they would never have allowed conduct that, when it became know as it inevitably would have, was certain to engender a backlash.

The truth is that these commanders considered the Arabs and Pashtuns held captive by their troops to be less than human. For some this was a reflection of their religious fanaticism. For others it was old fashioned racial hatred for dark skinned peoples. Military training had a hand in this - soldiers are taught long and hard to never think of "the enemy" as people lest they feel remorse for what they are doing. And we shouldn't forget sadism as a motive - simple recreational torture. Whatever the motive they believed, were certain, that torturing detainees was no less moral than kicking a stray dog or pulling the wings off a fly.

If President Obama wants to cover up these acts he needs to do more than block release of the photos. As long as the evidence exists the truth will find a way out. He needs to order the destruction of all the pictures. He also needs to discover those few members of the military with consciouses and scruples and send them on suicide missions. Maybe authorize a code red. I pity the President. He is now learning how to dance with the devil.