That's the danger behind it... it's a tough job being President. One wonders why anyone would even want to be one.

Agreed! Not only are you in the public eye all the time, but instead of just watching you, we're watching for you to screw up. It's worse than being a celebrity! My hat is off to anyone with enough drive to serve the people to that extent...

I feel for this man at this moment. That is one VERY tough choice to make.
If you don't release the photos, the world will cry that not enough is being done.
If you release the photos, they'll be on the front page of every newspaper and news website, no doubt taken out of context to the fullest ability of the press.
And the thing is, the guy wasn't even in charge when it happened.

That's what I hate the most... I agree with Spike that the POTUS does have a responsibility of sorts to make sure the American image is a good one, but I also agree that it shouldn't be THIS President doing the apologizing.

As for the photos... Quite honestly, I could care less about them. I could live a perfectly happy life without seeing those images. I know the US engages in torture, and the CIA memos simply affirmed that (to some degree). With the release of those memos, we said that we are willing to show you that we are wrong, and are going to change. That's all we can do... We can't go back and NOT torture those people... The most anyone in the world can expect is that with a new head of the nation, things will go differently.

Originally Posted by Rob Henderson

That's what I hate the most... I agree with Spike that the POTUS does have a responsibility of sorts to make sure the American image is a good one, but I also agree that it shouldn't be THIS President doing the apologizing.

the world does not expect an "apology" from President Obama, but it would do a great deal of good for the image of the US if he allowed a full disclosure of previous errors, and suitable punishment of those involved.

So the world can see that the punishments are appropriate, they must be made aware of exactly what happened, otherwise there will always be calls of a "whitewash", and rightfully so.

The world remembers the part played by the US in War Crimes trials in previous wars, and they have long memories, seeing it as less than ideal, that a country that expects others to abide by the International Conventions to not do the same.

Pretty simple really.

I know there are people who don't give a flying f*ck for what the rest of the world thinks about this, but it is those attitudes that have dragged us into this mess. Now we must decide whether we are going to be "the good Guys' or the Bad guys". I don't care what anyone else feels about this, but personally I feel that it helps our cause a lot if we firmly hold the moral high ground.

It's not much sense in conducting a war against evil, if we are as bad as those we accuse, and before someone goes off about 9/11, just think how many innocent civilians we have killed in our "war against evil" The old "they started it" is only a schoolyard excuse in cases such as this because it all goes back a long way before 9/11.

We must not make our enemies right.

Originally Posted by senojekips

the world does not expect an "apology" from President Obama, but it would do a great deal of good for the image of the US if he allowed a full disclosure of previous errors, and suitable punishment of those involved.

So the world can see that the punishments are appropriate, they must be made aware of exactly what happened, otherwise there will always be calls of a "whitewash", and rightfully so.

The world remembers the part played by the US in War Crimes trials in previous wars, and they have long memories, seeing it as less than ideal, that a country that expects others to abide by the International Conventions to not do the same.

Pretty simple really.

I know there are people who don't give a flying f*ck for what the rest of the world thinks about this, but it is those attitudes that have dragged us into this mess. Now we must decide whether we are going to be "the good Guys' or the Bad guys". I don't care what anyone else feels about this, but personally I feel that it helps our cause a lot if we firmly hold the moral high ground.

It's not much sense in conducting a war against evil, if we are as bad as those we accuse, and before someone goes off about 9/11, just think how many innocent civilians we have killed in our "war against evil" The old "they started it" is only a schoolyard excuse in cases such as this because it all goes back a long way before 9/11.

Cheers Spike... I couldn't have said it better myself. I don't mean an apology per say... Damage control is a better phrase.

It is always easy to try and arrest people involved in wars that don't really involve you personally.
But before you do you have to ask yourself: what would you do if it were your own people? Then you judge. Unfortunately this was never seriously considered.

It was a rash decision by a rash man. We have rectified the problem, now let's focus on the solution!

Well it's not like we're policy makers... but it'll be interesting to see where this goes.
I think there are simply too many factors involved to be able to really make a prediction at this point.