President Obama showed wisdom in heeding Ralph Waldo Emerson’s maxim that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” The chief executive reversed course Wednesday and directed the Justice Department to fight a federal court order to make public photographs allegedly showing terrorist detainees being abused by U.S. interrogators and military personnel. He had said in April that the photographs would be released no later than May 28.Obama defended his latest decision by noting that release of the photographs “would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals. In fact, the most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.”
There is little doubt that making such photographs public would have been a dangerous and foolish move. At least 100 people died in 2006 in rioting that broke out following circulation by a Muslim group of a series of Danish newspaper cartoons ridiculing the murderous violence of Islamic extremists. Similarly, at least 17 people died in rioting that followed a false report in Newsweek magazine in 2005 that U.S. authorities had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet. This week, Obama heard from senior U.S. commanders who warned him that they feared release of the photographs would result in new attacks against U.S. soldiers, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. Beyond concerns about fresh attacks, there was also the certainty that releasing the photographs would hand radical Islamists a powerful new recruiting tool with which to attract suicide bombers and others bent on shedding American blood however and whenever possible.
Emerson’s “little minds” are well-illustrated by the reaction of the American Civil Liberties Union to Obama’s decision. The ACLU brought the original court suit that led to the order for the photographs’ release. “It’s absolutely essential that these photos be released, so the public can examine for itself the torture and abuse that was conducted in its name, and so that high-level officials who authorized or permitted that abuse can be held accountable,” said the ACLU’s Amrit Singh. Thus is illustrated the Left’s obsession with achieving its “Blame America First” agenda regardless whether doing so means death and injury for the brave men and women voluntarily serving overseas to protect the freedom of thoughtless zealots like the ACLU.
