So how long do we end up waiting for the photos to be released? Indefinitely?

[fujiyama]

Now, I'm willing to hold off in totally going off on Obama for not releasing the photos - IF and ONLY IF he's willing to give a timetable or deadline of sorts for releasing them. I also know that he's under tremendous pressure not to go against the commanders own advice. I can respect the decision, just yet as he also needs those same commanders if/when he's going to actually start withdrawing from Iraq (a promise I'm skeptical he'll actually live up to)...

He's done a lot to make his administration honest, open, and transparent (especially compared to the previous administration), but how long will we be given this excuse of the photos putting troops lives at risk? Until we've withdrawn from Iraq? What about Afghanistan? I've heard no indication of withdrawing from there...Oh yeah? And Pakistan is unstable...Oh well. Yeah, it looks like we'll get this excuse indefinitely because we'll ALWAYS have troops overseas that could be the target of anti-American hatred.

Sorry, how long do we wait? Until all our involvements overseas have concluded?

[MADem]

1. You might want to go back and review his statements on this matter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/us/politics/14photos.html?ref=global-home

“The publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals,” Mr. Obama told reporters on the South Lawn. “In fact, the most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.”



Don't be holding your breath, assuming the administration can hold this off and prevail with additional arguments in court. Also, for those who are suggesting that these photos are "worse" than the horrific images we've already seen, that might not be the case--at least not according to someone at the Pentagon who has seen them. There's just a LOT of them.

One Pentagon official involved in the discussion said the photos showed detainees in humiliating positions, but said they were not as provocative as pictures of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib. The official said that the photos showed detainee nudity, and that some included images of detainees shackled for transfer. Other photographs showed American military personnel members with weapons drawn, pointing at detainees in what another official said had the appearance of “a war trophy.”

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe photographs that are the subject of continuing litigation.

[bluestateguy]

2. I am waiting for more important things to happen

Like waiting for the economy to improve, or achieve universal health care (or something close to that). My own sense is that people who are struggling in this country (most of them anyway) are not overly preoccupied with when these pictures will be released. They have bigger fish to fry right now.

This issue may be at the top of the radar screen for the Moveon.org/San Francisco penthouse crowd, but it's way down the list for most everybody else.

[LooseWilly]

3. You know, honesty is refreshing...

I mean, some of us are lunatic enough to feel like accountability for what appear to be war crimes is a big deal... but to just out and out dismiss idealism in favor of worrying about one's own well being... I can admire the honesty in that.

In the interest of disclosure, yeah I'm part of moveon.org. And I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hardly a penthouse though... unemployed for a good portion of the last year... and driving a taxi in Oakland saw income drop in about 83 of the 96 months that W was in office. And each drop was a further drop from the reduced level it had reached from the month before (which would be why I stopped bothering to try last year, when income dropped below the minimum wage).

It's good to see that there are those who are willing to just say it. That they don't give a shit about what the country made others suffer through, or how many laws were broken to do it... none of that matters when the economy is in trouble... and my healthcare is unaffordable.

I guess I'm an idiot. My personal economy has been on a downhill slide for 8 years, and I was doing one of the most dangerous jobs in the country in one of the most dangerous cities in the country with no health insurance to cover me if I got stabbed or shot... but I still think holding government officials accountable when they break the law is important. Maybe it's because I was given no leniency when I was given a ticket for driving a company car with bald tires on a sunny June afternoon... but the idea that I'm accountable to the law but the government isn't... pisses me off.

Maybe it's just me...

[lamp_shade]

4. I don't care if they ever get released to the public, as long as they're given to

an investigative commission. I've seen enough photos to satisfy my curiosity.

[izzie]

5. I think they have already done the harm they are going to do

but I may be wrong and this would just add to it. I am willing to bet we will see them. Maybe later than sooner but you know how hard it is to keep that stuff under the rug. I am not sure Obama is right and it just fuels the whole thing to do it this way. It builds wanting to see them all the more. Soooooooooooo we will so just wait.