Pontius Obama

President Obama, speaking at the White House, said today that he would seek to block the release of dozens of photographs depicting alleged abuse of detainees by U.S. soldiers, arguing that the disclosures would "further inflame anti-American opinion" and "put our troops in greater danger."
As the BBC asks tonight, When a politician is caught red-handed doing a U-turn, the first question to ask is why?

The BBC answer is that a) the release of the photos would inflame the Muslim world (just in advance of the president's reported speech) and b) General Odierno and General McKiernan told their commander-in-chief that the photo publication would endanger U.S. troops on the battlefield.

I would like to suggest an alternative line of reasoning. Let us consider that a) Mr. Obama want's the photos released as indicated by his original position, b) for political purposes he doesn't mind looking like he is opposing the ACLU, c) he doesn't want to be blamed for any likely resulting casualties and d) he fully expects that the courts will order the release anyway, especially if his Solicitor General (on the short list for supreme court nomination) puts up a strong but ineffective defense, e) depending on the courts will delay the photo release until after his Muslim world speech.

May I introduce the Notre Dame commencement speaker, Pontius Pilate Obama?