Obama ticks off the far left w/ flip flop; but makes the right call

The President's Reversal [Peter Wehner]

President Obama has done a good and important thing by reversing himself on a previous commitment. According to Politico:

In a dramatic and high-profile reversal for his young administration, President Barack Obama is seeking to block the release of 44 photographs depicting abuse of detainees in U.S. military custody in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Justice Department had already agreed to release the photos by May 28 in response to a lawsuit, but Obama is shifting course. “Last week, the President met with his legal team and told them that he did not feel comfortable with the release of the DOD photos because he believes their release would endanger our troops, and because he believes that the national security implications of such a release have not been fully presented to the court,” said a White House official who asked not to be named. “At the end of that meeting, the President directed his counsel to object to the immediate release of the photos on those grounds,” the official said…. “the President strongly believes that the release of these photos, particularly at this time, would only serve the purpose of inflaming the theaters of war, jeopardizing US forces, and making our job more difficult in places like Iraq and Afghanistan,” the White House official said.

What motivated Obama to take this action is impossible to know. Divining our own motivations on things we do is hard enough; trying to judge the motivations of others is far more difficult. All I can say is that the president has done the right thing — if in my judgment the blindingly obvious thing — in this instance. To have released these photos would have been a reckless and irresponsible act, one he would have quickly come to regret. There are those on the Left who will be unhappy with Obama; he should treat their unhappiness as a badge of honor. Whether on the matter of detainees at Guantanamo Bay or the war in Iraq or the release of these photographs, Obama is finding out — as does every Oval Office occupant — that the duties of being president are not simple as campaign slogans.


Obama's Reversal [Jonah Goldberg]

I agree with the general consensus that President Obama has made the right call here, albeit later than he should have. The press's appetite has been fueled in ways it wouldn't have been if he'd made the right call from the outset. Moreover, I think Obama's decision debunks the claim that he had to release the torture memos either. Recall that lots of Obama's defenders, including Obama, wanted it both ways on the release of those memos. They wanted to argue he was courageous for his decision, but that the release was inevitable anyway because of an ACLU FOIA lawsuit. Well, he could have fought then, as he's decided to fight now. Right?


Obama's War Now? [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

The ACLU is not happy. From a press release:


"The Obama administration's adoption of the stonewalling tactics and opaque policies of the Bush administration flies in the face of the president's stated desire to restore the rule of law, to revive our moral standing in the world and to lead a transparent government. This decision is particularly disturbing given the Justice Department's failure to initiate a criminal investigation of torture crimes under the Bush administration.

"It is true that these photos would be disturbing; the day we are no longer disturbed by such repugnant acts would be a sad one. In America, every fact and document gets known – whether now or years from now. And when these photos do see the light of day, the outrage will focus not only on the commission of torture by the Bush administration but on the Obama administration's complicity in covering them up. Any outrage related to these photos should be due not to their release but to the very crimes depicted in them. Only by looking squarely in the mirror, acknowledging the crimes of the past and achieving accountability can we move forward and ensure that these atrocities are not repeated.

"If the Obama administration continues down this path, it will betray not only its promises to the American people, but its commitment to this nation's most fundamental principles. President Obama has said we should turn the page, but we cannot do that until we fully learn how this nation veered down the path of criminality and immorality, who allowed that to happen and whose lives were mutilated as a result. Releasing these photos – as painful as it might be – is a critical step toward that accounting. The American people deserve no less."