We live in a political world and the demos are going perpetuate that for years to come.
JMO, the people who look foolish are the ones who keep wishing for political utopia.
So what do you suggest? Actively trying to use this as political fodder against liberals to trump their expected actions?
Do you see President Bush taking that course of action? How about Sec. Rumsfeld? Gen. Myers? No, they're accepting responsibility/accountability. That's what strong leaders do - those who are attempting to use this to further their agenda will ultimately hurt their cause, and are the worst kind of political hacks.
I'll say again, in the world of 2004, once photographs of these incidents were made ... and I'll grant people this, IMHO this wasn't torture but was still way over the line and those involved should be tried and punished as they almost certainly will be ... they were destined to get out. It doesn't matter if they were, quote, "classified," unquote, it doesn't matter if they came from the DOD, from disgruntled reservists, from Congressional committees, from the families of people over there or what. They were going to get out. There was no way that anyone or anything in this or any known solar system was going to prevent it from happening.
IMHO, that is the best thing, I think this situation has already maxed out on heat and if, as I said last night, the White House gathers all this stuff and dumps reams and stacks and piles of it on the media, shovels it on until they cry "no more," we're going to reach the point of diminishing returns.
But it seems like everyone can't understand that because they're so mad about such a big deal being made over this, they're so mad about the fact that it "got out," they're so filled with hatred for the media/libs/Dems/Hackworth that it blinds them to what IMHO the best strategy truly is for ensuring that this causes minimum damage on 11/2.
Again, screw the Dems, screw the libs and screw the media (I choked a little on that, because I work in the media). They're going to do what they do and nothing is going to change it and nothing can change it. If this is such a political world, then every step taken by Bush and the White House on this should be taken in the context of going over the heads of those jabbering nabobs directly to the 20 percent of the American electorate that isn't polarized ... IMHO, 40 percent will vote for Bush and 40 percent will vote for Kerry and that will not change, even if one of them is caught ritually sacrificing a virgin in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue ... and will decide the election on 11/2. And the best way, IMHO, to do that is to dump it all out, hold nothing back, be apologetic, whether anyone thinks it's kowtowing to the media/Dems/libs or not.
One more thing, if this did come from the DOD or Congress, you can't automatically assume that it came from Dems or Libs. I've been preaching this here for six years until my fingers are nubs, but one more time ... people who work in the bureaucracy of Washington, D.C., and who may call themselves "conservatives" or "Republicans" aren't inherently in line with the beliefs of we Freepers and they most certainly don't inherently and automatically have personal loyalty to George W. Bush.