“Every photo is a bullet for our enemy.”
A letter on Salon.com
In 2005 demeaning pictures of Saddam Hussein in his underwear taken during his imprisonment were "leaked" to the press. This was a big deal at the time because it evidenced a gross double standard. Leaking pictures of abuses at Abu Gharaib was pernicious and threatened harm to the troops, but leaking propagandistic photos would demoralize the insurgency. When pressed about those pictures Bush responded,
"Well, you asked me whether or not that would inspire people. You know, I don't think a photo inspires murderers. I think they're inspired by an ideology that is so barbaric and backwards that it's hard for many in the Western world to comprehend how they think."
It was a pretty amazing quote in 2005 and its pretty amazing now. Even Bush agrees that photos don't inspire murders!
The quote can be found here:
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/05/20050520-1.html
