In its latest sop to the far left, the Obama administration is going to release hundreds of photos showing U.S. troops ostensibly mistreating prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. The true number of pictures runs into the thousands. Why release some, but not all? According to Fox News, “(the Pentagon) is choosing not to include the substantial number of additional photos submitted as evidence, many of which did not lead to disciplinary action.” Translation: pictures which don’t show America in the worst possible light don’t make the cut.
I have a far better idea. Create two giant columns of pictures. In Column A, post every picture which reinforces the America-bashers’ view that our country is: the scourge of the modern world; its former leaders are “war criminals;” our soldiers and intelligence agencies are “out-of-control terrorists,” or mind-numbed robots “only following orders;” or any other photos which reinforce the Hate America crowd’s worldview.
Column B? Photos of jetliners crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Photos of people jumping eighty stories to avoid being burned to death. Individual pictures of the three hundred-plus emergency responders who were killed trying to rescue doomed New Yorkers. Photos from the NY Medical Examiner’s Office of the charred remains which took over five years to fully identify. Pictures of innocent individuals being beheaded by terrorist thugs. Pictures of thousands of Muslims celebrating the carnage of 9/11.
If the Obama administration were truly interested in perspective or fairness, such an exhibition would be a no-brainer. But it is not. It is far more interested in portraying America as an amoral country in need of a guilt-releasing national catharsis. Our lack of perfection demands nothing less than an international exhibition of self-flagellation in order to “restore our reputation.”
Amongst whom? Every thug who has our worst interests at heart–and every “high-minded” nation grown accustomed to lecturing us about our “shortcomings,” even as Americans continue to spill blood and treasure covering their collective backs while they stick the knife into ours.
One more thing. Maybe it hasn’t occurred to this administration, but despite all the well-laid plans of the interminably Angry Left, it won’t be American politicians who bear the brunt of their insatiable desire to air America’s so-called dirty laundry in public. It will be our men and women in harm’s way. They will be the ones who will pay the price for providing terrorists with their latest recruiting propaganda. That such a reality either never occurred to this administration, or worse–that it was dismissed as a “reasonable” trade-off for ideological advantage, is a disgrace.
Perhaps if the president were more attuned to the reality that he is Commander-in-Chief, as opposed to his egotistical fantasy of being America’s Therapist-in-Chief, he would know that.
atahlert@comcast.net
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