From a friend's email (May 14, 2009):
"President Obama said on Wednesday (May 13, 2009) that he is seeking to block the release of photographs that depict American military personnel abusing captives in Iraq and Afghanistan, worrying that the images could “further inflame anti-American opinion.”
See below for proof of how the Average American supports his/her President, in trying to sweep America's dirty laundry under the carpet.
What's funny about all of this is, (as Rick Salutin so aptly put it), is the idiotic American assumption that the rest of the world is as ignorant about America's terrible record of human-rights abuses, as the Average American is.
In fact, the world is already painfully (pun intended) aware of what America's track record of torture and oppression is. So Mr. Obama's trying to clumsily censor the latest set of torture photos is the proverbial "locking the barn door after the horse has left" situation.
None the less, you can see from the above poll, how seriously Americans take their often-proclaimed devotion to "freedom of the press", "transparency", etc. -- they're all in favor of showing the facts; that is, until the facts don't show their actions in a favourable light.
Try to imagine the Premier of China, refusing to release photographs of what's going on in Tibet, on the grounds that showing these to the world would "inflame anti-Chinese sentiment", "putting Chinese forces occupying Tibet, at additional risk".
In fact, the world is already painfully (pun intended) aware of what America's track record of torture and oppression is. So Mr. Obama's trying to clumsily censor the latest set of torture photos is the proverbial "locking the barn door after the horse has left" situation.
None the less, you can see from the above poll, how seriously Americans take their often-proclaimed devotion to "freedom of the press", "transparency", etc. -- they're all in favor of showing the facts; that is, until the facts don't show their actions in a favourable light.
Try to imagine the Premier of China, refusing to release photographs of what's going on in Tibet, on the grounds that showing these to the world would "inflame anti-Chinese sentiment", "putting Chinese forces occupying Tibet, at additional risk".
.
Then, change "China" to "America" and "Tibet" to "Abu Ghraib". You get it, now, don't you?
.
The lovely "progressive" Barack Obama, is now trying to (again) brush the truth about Abu Ghraib under the rug, just like George Bush did.
.
Ask yourself: If Obama really wanted to make a significant change in America's way of doing business -- if he really wanted to 'come clean' on what America has been doing to the world, over (at least) the last 8 years -- then why would he be trying to censor the pictures coming out of Abu Ghraib?"
.
Update: From the first Comment below
.
"But what is ultimately even more amazing is the claim that suppressing these photographs is necessary to prevent an inflammation of anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world generally and Afghanistan specifically. That claim is coming from the same people who are doing this: Civilian deaths in US airstrike overshadow Obama's Afghan summit" May 7, 2009
A wounded child in Farah yesterday. Up to 120 people, including civilians, were reported to have been killed in a series of US airstrikes on two villages (Times Online)
No comments:
Post a Comment