A Childhood Lesson for the President

As children, we are told to own up to our lies and transgressions because, if we don’t, they will inevitably come back to haunt us. Denying, concealing, or failing to rectify them leads to a permanent program of falsification which necessarily gets us in deeper.

Once on a path like this, it will become clear that what is needed is a way out, not a way further in. Without a clearing – a cleansing – there is no way to deal single-mindedly with the problem area. The only option is to deal double-mindedly because we cannot escape its hold over us.

President Obama has had a change of heart. He has decided to oppose the release of additional torture photos, as he had agreed to, on the grounds that their release would “further inflame anti-American opinion and…put our troops in greater danger.” Thus, he claims, and this should sound familiar, it is a matter of national security.

Before we criticize the president on this, we must look at it from his perspective, which, with the clue of the first paragraph in mind, involves double-mindedness on his part. He is scheduled to appear in Egypt on June 4,  the occasion being to assure the Muslim world that the United States, in its role as responsible world leader, is not their enemy but their friend.

We can see how problematical it would be for the administration to have these fresh images circulating among Muslims shortly before he asks for their trust.

And we are forced to agree with him that their release would further inflame anti-American sentiment and put our troops in greater danger, but we are not forced to conclude that it is a matter of national security.

To see this we have to go a level deeper. The release of the photos will inflame anti-American sentiment – BECAUSE – we are not prosecuting the people responsible for the torture, involving generals and high level Bush administration officials leading all the way to Pennsylvania Avenue.

If we were prosecuting, the photos, instead of being inflammatory, would be a sign to the Muslim world that in facing these terrible truths about ourselves and in bringing justice, we have demonstrated some right to ask for their trust.

This cleansing (partial in the sense that it’s limited to torture and ignores our overriding agenda of world dominance, including our imperialist invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq) will make us more secure, not less, for the path we are on is one of national insecurity.

Just as undone wrongs create an insecure child, the President of the United States is insecure because he has not righted our country’s wrongs. How much more secure he might be going into this speech if he had confronted our own transgressors with prosecution. How much more would he be believed and trusted, not only by the Muslim world, but by our own allies and the world at large.