Reading The Pictures: The Effect Of Withholding Terror Photos (Or: "Obama The Front Man")

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One problem for Obama -- in refusing to release pictorial documentation of torture from the Bush "terror war" era (after having committed to doing so) -- is that, visually, it is not a zero-sum game.

What it does in its place is evoke and encourage other visual narratives that inevitably shape a presidency. One effect this will have, for example, is to raise the focus on Obama's increasingly sympathetic and even symbiotic relationship with Gates and Petraeus (especially coming immediately after the unceremonious dismissal of our Afghan Commander) with the suggestion that Obama is being unusually subservient to the military-- an idea in play in this Getty image taken two weeks ago outside the White House.

The political calculation to flip-flop and side with the military -- and, in effect, adopt the Bush/Cheney narrative of "defending the troops" over getting the truth out and purging the government of Bush terror war imagery -- starts to move Obama's visual identity (like Bush's, I'm afraid) in the direction of "the war President" or "the Pentagon's President" or "The CIA's President" or "The NSA's President."

Further, in so dismissively erasing those terror war visuals, it serves to pictorially heighten and strengthen -- both going forward and retrospectively -- his association with secrecy, with militarism, with the ball-and-chain of Afghanistan, and with torture.

For more visual politics, visit BAGnewsNotes.com (and follow us on Twitter).

(image 1: Saul Loeb/Getty. White House. Washington, DC, April 30, 2009)

Comments

[Yurdelite]

Get over it people. The pictures do not need to be released. You know that Bush/Cheney tortured so why do you need photos that will serve to harm our military and help terrorists recruit more people. This is the mess that GW Bush, Dick Cheney and their neocon chicken hawk cowards brought upon this country with the help of the rubber stamp congress. You people did not do a damn thing for the 8 years these two terrorists were in power--NOTHTING. They were voted in twice because a lot of lazy a$$es stayed home and did not exercise their right to vote. Cheney and Bush are evil, period. They will pay for what they have done to America, it military and military families, and the rest of the world.
It is truly disgusting that a 5 deferment coward had the power to torture people and his cowardly accomplices let him get away with it. Even the ones who disagreed did nothing to stop this abuse in the name of the USA.

[dwright]

You folks on here that are screaming to have pictures released and think it is for transparency reasons - I do think that Obama had the memos revealed correct?

It is no wonder why we usually do not have the best of people run for office, I think President Obama is a good man and he is making wise decisions with long range goals in mind. Can you all stay with him and look beyond 15 minutes.

There are those of you screaming - but but but he promised - you know what he promised; that he would lead wisely and it is you that are short on trust, not him. He said over and over again it was going to take a long time to fix things. I have complete faith that he will have these goons tried in court, however every murd.er case that I have researched and read about took at least a year to go to trial after all the evidence is collected.

He has been in office a couple months. sheez

I can imagine all of the people out there, good people that know Obama and were thinking about going into public service, now thinking, heck if people are that fickle and well "short sighted" why do I want to do anything for them, sacrifice my family, time, life style.

I am sickened more by you whiners on here, almost more than I am sick of Rush.

[Yurdelite]

THANK YOU Dwight. The msm chimes in with their oh Obama is acting like Bush. BS. Obama has more sense in his left pinky than Bush will ever have. Obama is the one looking at the intelligence and making the wise decisions unlike Bush/Cheney who ignored what the intelligence told them.

It is amazing to me that these folks are now screaming so loud now but sat on their a$$es for 8 long, long years and did nothing. Now they want the head of a President that has been in office for 4 months. This is so ridiculous. I like you are sick of these whiners and far left folks. Hey lefties YOU DID NOT ELECT the President by yourselves so stop acting like it and sit back and shut up and let him do the job we elected him to do.

[Emerald1943]

I agree with you. This is almost as much of a distraction as the Nancy flap. We need to stay focused on the end result. Let's give the President a break here. The Supreme Court may still require those photos released and the President will comply.

The end result is to see Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzo, and the rest of that cabal be brought up on war crimes charges. I am as anxious as anyone else to see it happen, but the Attorney General also needs time to lay out his case. Let's everybody take a deep breath and stay focused. We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted.

Let's keep up the pressure on the mainstream media to release information as it becomes available. The trickle is becoming a flood, and it won't be long until the outcry from the public is so loud that Washington cannot ignore it!

[maddie0001]

We've just told the world that there's a set of pictures of acts committed by US soldiers under orders that are so horrific that we (Americans) can't bear to see them. And that we don't intend to prosecute anybody for committing those crimes. I don't understand how that 'protects' the troops. It's a policy designed to protect somebody else.

Lets ignore the fact that anybody can google pictures worst than what we've seen here. Let's ignore the fact that detainee survivors can describe what happened to them. Ignore the fact that agitators can attribute anything to the picture and people who want to riot will believe it. Ignore the fact that the German people could face what happened in the death camps - these pictures c?an't be as bad as that, can they?

Bottom line, we can't bear to face the pictures and nobody's getting in trouble. Ignorance is bliss.

[Yurdelite]

Sure you can google up pictures scarier than those but those pictures were not being used to recruit people to blow up innocent people in buildings, on trains and anyplace in the world the terrorists choose to strike. We did not have these silent cowards who have no second thoughts about killing or cutting off peoples heads.

[Loompa]

The only reason behind the lefty wingnuts wanting the photos released is the hope that they may embarrass Bush. They won't. Get over it and move on.

[Citizen-Jane]

Bush embarrassed him self.

I respectfully disagree with President Obama on this issue, but in his defense he did say that he did not want to release this photo at THIS TIME. So the possibility that somewhere down the road this photos will be released to the public.

' agree with the article.

[PartyofLogic]

Sadly, I agree.

[twofish]

American exceptionalism requires that we believe that we are always the Good Guys, acting nobly out of the best intentions ("Operation Iraqi Freedom"). The right has been bending over backwards to deny that our personnel have been torturing people (likening it to "fraternity hazing" etc as Limbaugh did).

If these photos are as bad as Sy Hersh says they are, they would shatter that pretense and force us to look in the mirror at some real ugliness. It's unpredictable what the response would be. Some possibilities are a revulsion that demands the responsible parties be prosecuted, which Obama has indicated he does not want to do. Or rage against the people who revealed the crimes rather than the ones who committed them.

In Russia, glasnost (openness) led to perestroika (restructuring) and the end of the Soviet Union. We're on very dangerous ground here, and I don't know what the right short term answer is. In the long term, I think it has to all come out. "Let justice be done, though the heavens fall."

[Yermammy]

Cheney's winning. Nice going Mr. War Inc. That's not what you were hired to do. Perhaps you'll be joining the war criminals when the world demands we respect our treaties. You had your chance and you're about to blow it. If it hadn't been for the ACLU, you blinded Obamabot cheerleaders wouldn't even know about the torture memo's. President Obama has been protecting Bush's crimes ever since he took office. Even Bush released the first batch of photos. What, the drone planes killing innocents doesn't spark rage? Ridiculous. You're hypocrites in the extreme when you laugh at blindly loyal Bushies, but have this fanatical faith in these carefully crafted sound bytes about the "troops" BS. That's the SAME rhetoric Bush used to good effect. EXACTLY the same.
Change? Gimme a break. And your uncritical thought is not helping Barack. Your fooling yourself.

[jadeba]

Today, a friend who is dating a 3 time Iraqi tour vet came by. Her friend Matt was relieved that Pres. O had decided not to release them as they would lead to more acts of violence against the troops. It makes sense to me - we have seen the shocking photos from Abu Graib already, what would these photos add to the debate? I don't know. I have nothing to lose if these photos are released, but I fear that Matt is right and he would know better than I.

[Tim303]

Not true--unfortunately this post also relies on a kind of zero sum logic. Not releasing the photos is refraining from further violence. I see it as a very powerful statement, actually. Don't tell me Rumsfeld didn't turn a blind eye to the photos' release, creating a double abuse situation for the people in the photos, some of whom were killed for shame by their own families. And the photos' release was also an abuse of us--rubbing our nose in what was being done. I support Obama withholding the photos.

[maxgen1]

I'm tired of politicians using the excuse "to protect the troops" for political purposes. Bush stifled dissent and used torture to "protect the troops." Now Obama is "protecting the troops" by refusing to reveal the extent of the torture.

[larry278]

So much for Candidate Obama's, "...change that you can trust (or believe [in]). It's past time for the USA to become a multi-party democracy. The 2 party but 1 policy system isn't working, is it? With the same 2 parties, it's SS/DD. Bush or Obama are clones of each other. Obama now owns the war in Afghanistan. 5 will get you 9 that Obama will own the war in & occupation of Iraq by the end of June, 2009. When Obama started taking immense amounts of establisment money in April, 2008, Obama sold out to the establishment. Obama took the establishment's money. The establishment annointed Obama as POTUS for he now was their man. Obama is giving the establishment W's policy in exchange for the establishments money & continuing help. There will be no change in Iraq. There will be a 2-4 year surge in Afghanistan, courtesy of Pres Obama. Only the dead troops will come home & stay home. It's rotation in & out of Afghanistan/Irag for the troops who stay alive, the walking wounded too.

[Loompa]

What torture?

[Emerald1943]

Try this on for size...see if it meets your criteria!

http://thesidetrack.blogspot.com/2009/05/seymour-hersh-children-sodomized-at-abu.html

[JDM73]

A lot of people are bending over backwards to rationalize Obama's actions, aren't they?

[jadeba]

What do you risk in releasing these photos? Probably nothing, as I do. It's easy to stand on principle when you have nothing to lose. I thought they should be released...until I talked to an Iraq vet who was totally convinced that releasing them would result in greater violence against our troops. He's not a gung ho type - he was but after 3 tours, he just wants it over.

[Dredd]

Obama will only have himself to blame when his heart and soul become sick as a result of his failure to do what he was elected to do.

[JEP57]

".......Obama is being unusually subservient to the military-- an idea in play in this Getty image taken two weeks ago outside the White House."

"The political calculation to flip-flop and side with the military -- and, in effect, adopt the Bush/Cheney narrative of "defending the troops" over getting the truth out...."

You DO know that President Obama is their commander-in-chief and is honor and duty bound to look out for them. Why is it I sense a contempt for all things military. If we get attacked, guess who defends us.

[pundit27]

The problem is that under the previous criminal administration, making defending the troops or protecting the citizenry the first responsibility of the President became a code phrase as used by Bush to mean that, sorry, whatever i want to call a national security issue trumps any constitutional rights or need for constitutionally sound governance. . .so when Axelrod,, in defending Obama's position says the very same thing, that protecting American is Obama's Job #1, he too forgets to say that, no, that's in his role as commander-in-chief perhaps, those are his main goals, but as President, his Job #1 is upholding his oath -- faithfully executing the laws of the land and preserving and protecting the Constitution . . . . Obama has to decide what he is, another American "war president" or a transforming President of recovery and reconciliation. . . .and justice . . . .

[JEP57]

Since we're still at war with Islamic jihadists and terrorists (and it's not going to go away anytime soon), then yes, Obama is a "war president". It is what it is. There's nothing wrong with it. We didn't ask for their jihad against "infidels". And justice is served by standing up to these terrorists.

[maxgen1]

excellent

[hollybork]

I agree with Obama's choice to protect our troops. That is his first priority. Let the Federal Courts order the pictures to be made public, if that is constitutionally mandatory. I doubt they will do that, however.

Obama is both morally and legally correct to hold back the pictures while we are still at war. The protection of life is a President's first duty. The troops are sent by the President into the field of battle. They are vulnerable to capture by terrorists and these pictures are undoubtedly inflammatory. Even if Obama saves only one life, or one soldier's pain, by depriving terrorists access to inflammatory propoganda, then it would be worth it to hold back these pictures.I am glad the President is putting our troops first. That has not been the case in the past.

[YewNeekId]

The federal court did order the photos be made public.

So it looks like we only get change, transparency and sunshine when it serves to embarass the Republicans? Very Orwellian.

[valkyrie607]

So I'm sure that a few weeks ago, when Obama was saying that the photos would be released, you were vocally protesting his decision, right?

[jadeba]

I would have...until I found out what a soldier thinks of it all. 3 tours in Iraq and he was relieved that they would not be released. Most of us here have nothing that we risk, we're here. It's easy to stand on principle when it costs you nothing.

[Diana]

Withholding the photos will increase terrorism and put our troops in MORE danger, not less.

Terrorists will only infer from this that obama refuses to hold war criminals accountable, that he's just as corrupt as bush or cheney.

Call the White House and protest! (Real, live people will write down what you say):

202-456-1111

[queeraz]

If, in fact, the US troops are the best in the world...especially without having to worry about fellow troops that might be GAY!...then, they should be able to defend themselves even as the photos are released. Is this about TRUTH or is it a means to hide it? How BRAVE are we really? Seems we're willing to do whatever is deemed necessary as long as we can bury the truth. How brave, indeed.

[ConservMom]

Australia got some "leak" pictures already and Drudge report showing them. Now .. who's administration could have "leaked" them? It's just horrid torture pics. LMAO
http://www.drudgereport.com/default.htm?sc=0.7255713511310653

[Diana]

Who cares about who LEAKED them? What about what they show?!

Get your priorities in order, for heaven's sakes!

(And what are you LMAO about, anyway? Go back to Drudge)

[Michael Shaw - Huffpost Blogger]

This is an excellent example of the kind of hysteria swirling around these terror photos (as well as evidence that Matt Drudge has no business being considered a journalist). The photo in question was part of a secondary release of Abu Ghraib photos that were released approximately thirteen months ago.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/multimedia/2008/02/gallery_abu_ghraib?slide=7&slideView=1