It wasn’t easy, I’m sure, for the Obama administration to release those memos that went into detail about the types of torture we conducted under Bush. That kind of information, it’s said, can make us look bad and make more people mad at us.
I would argue, and did quite strongly to one of my favorite political debate buddies today, that the “outrage” argument is easily flipped. The outrage is already there! Everyone in the world knows we’ve tortured in the past! They probably imagine it to be a lot worse than it really is… which is why the less common but more relevant argument is the “fear that it would plant doubts in foreign governments about the U.S. ability to shroud collaborative activities” is easily beaten as well.
It’s simple to me: by releasing the details of this torture we’re basically saying to the world: “We get it. We screwed up and we’re willing to make it right by being open and honest about it.” and also, perhaps even more importantly, if you’re interested enough to read details of these methods, you’ll probably be underwhelmed. My thought was “wow, that sounds unpleasant, but it’s not exactly pulling out fingernails or pouring tar on someone’s back.”
I know that last part sounds crude, but if you’re a detractor of America, you could easily spin wild tales of what we did to our detainees… exaggerating wildly. But now, we’ve put it out there and, well, they’re not that bad! Hopefully some people will get a grip and find someone else to hate…
Besides, someone needs to be held accountable. That’s just obvious.
That’s my main argument on these memos… but I wanted to make another point about Obama. When reading this Politico article just now I was struck by how awesome Obama’s decision making process was:
Seated in Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s West Wing office with about a dozen of his political, legal and security appointees, Obama requested a mini-debate in which one official was chosen to argue for releasing the memos and another was assigned to argue against doing so. When it ended, Obama dictated on the spot a draft of his announcement that the documents would be released, while most of the officials watched, according to an official who was present. The disclosure happened the next day.
THIS is how it should be! Get the big dogs in an office, have them air the good the bad and the ugly of the issue… and make a decision! He did that in one sitting. He was deliberate AND decisive!
Okay, enough Obama love. Going to a play now…
justin
