Those (of us) who’d like to see the perpetrators of torture exposed and hung for their crimes had a pretty rough week. It’s sort of sickening to be eagerly anticipating the next round of Abu Ghraib photos — like being excited about the release of a new snuff flick — but we desperately want the rest of the world to be as angry, disgusted and outraged as we are. These photos are crucial weapons against the ambivalent.
(But the original photos weren’t enough to prevent Bush’s second term, so perhaps our tolerance for disgust is bottomless. I dunno.)
Here’s the best explanation I can come up with for the President’s decision. And, fitting for our first comic book nerd leader, it boils down to the last big scene of The Watchmen. er, spoilers ahead.
Something in those photos is really bad. Toxic bad. Nuclear bad. Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker insists that he’s seen footage of sexual abuse from the prisons. Something that bad. So bad that it would set back the mess in the Middle East by yet another few years.
Analogy: at the end Watchmen, Rorschach is bent on exposing the crime committed by Ozymandius, even if it means wrecking the international wave of peace that was accomplished. Dr. Manhattan chooses peace over justice, and obliterates Rorschach.
A curious coda, though. Rorschach’s notes end up in the hands of a newspaper. Leaks happen. The future is left unknown.
