As I said in my previous post, the abuse of Iraqi prisoners is sickening, and it only reinforces the notion in the middle east and elsewhere that Americans are a bunch of moral degenerate sex perverts — i.e. the Great Satan. It’s not very helpful in the war. But there are a couple of things I’d like to note.
When my wife was reading the paper yesterday morning, first she got mad at our soldiers who abused the prisoners, and then got mad again when she read the following:
“We are men. It’s OK if they beat me. Beating don’t hurt us, it’s just a blow. But no one would want their manhood to be shattered. They wanted us to feel as though we were women, the way women feel, and this is the worst insult, to feel like a woman.”
Then she allowed that after that remark, a lot of her sympathy disappeared. Not completely, but a a lot. He could have left it at having his manhood shattered, but he went on to say that the worst insult is to feel like a woman.
After seeing some of the pictures of the abuse, what struck me (right after “what were they thinking?”) is that the content isn’t really that much different than what the NEA used to celebrate as “art” by Robert Mapplethorpe (amongst others) — if RM had added grinning idiots to his pictures that is.
#1 by Sean Murphy on May 6, 2004 - 2:32 pm
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The Silver-Lining of Abu Ghraib
#2 by Sean Murphy on May 8, 2004 - 12:06 pm
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Strategy Page has posted the Taguba report on Abu Ghraib
There is an interesting comment in the Other Findings/Observations section :
2. (U) During the course of this investigation I conducted a lengthy interview with BG Karpinski that lasted over four hours, and is included verbatim in the investigation Annexes. BG Karpinski was extremely emotional during much of her testimony. What I found particularly disturbing in her testimony was her complete unwillingness to either understand or accept that many of the problems inherent in the 800th MP Brigade were caused or exacerbated by poor leadership and the refusal of her command to both establish and enforce basic standards and principles among its Soldiers. (ANNEX 45)
that is also listed as item 14 under findings of fact (same paragraph verbatim).
One thing that the report also points out that I haven’t seen as much coverage of is a number of other units assigned to the prison who did not suffer the same breakdown in discipline.