As you may have heard, President Barack Obama has gone back on his promise and will now attempt to block the release a large batch of photos depicting torture and prisoner abuse that was due to be released as a result of a Freedom Of Information Act lawsuit by the ACLU.
However, it now appears that the President has come to the realization that no matter how hard he tries to ignore and cover up the crimes of the Bush administration, it will continue to be a political liability for him and his agenda.
That's why the President has announced that a special "Care Package" will be sent to every American citizen. The package will be full of products designed to help them ignore the horrible things their government did in their name. Take a look.
As you can see, the care package has all the bases covered. A patriotic blindfold and earplugs so you won't have to see or hear anything, and sleeping pills so you can shut your eyes and dream of an America where no man is above the law.
And before anyone fires back with the Obama is "doing it for the troops" argument, just remember, that in the same speech where he announced his reversal, he used the now proven Bush/Cheney falsehood, that the torture in the photos was a result of a "small group of individuals".
He (Obama) said the photos had already served their purpose in investigations of "a small number of individuals." Those cases were all concluded by 2004, and the president said "the individuals who were involved have been identified, and appropriate actions have been taken."
Actually, no. It wasn't a small group of individuals. The individuals involved have not all been identified. And appropriate action sure as hell has not been taken.
It was not ok when Republicans blamed a "few bad apples" for their war crimes. And how dare Obama continue that same disingenuous argument? What these specific photos prove is that torture was not a scattered, rare occurrence. It was top-down policy from the highest levels of the Bush Administration. You can't support the troops and throw them under the bus in the same speech.
Not to mention the fact that is was the actual torture that endangers our troops. That makes it more likely that they will be tortured. That makes it less likely that an enemy will peacefully surrender to our troops out of fear of what will happen to them once they are in our custody.
The fact that we treated our prisoners humanely saved more American lives than can we could ever possibly count. And until we take off our blindfolds, until we truly hold accountable those who authorized these heinous acts, until we come clean and show the world and ourselves that this is not, in fact, who we are... we will continue to endanger not only ourselves, but our troops.
Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter if you're someone who does that sort of thing.