The evidence coming out of Iraq regarding our treatment of prisoners of war is damning. Americans are NOT supposed to act like this. I have no truck with the Arab propagandists who are playing this up; they do not seem to condemn their own side’s even more brutal tactics and executions (I found Al-Jazeera’s decision not to show how “an Italian dies” to be particularly illustrative). But America is different.
We are not supposed to torture and humiliate people at all.
When the public finds out that this has happened, we are, by and large, appalled.
The guards who can be identified and their superiors who created the climate should be court martialled. I wouldn’t object if a few are hung as object lessons.
One thing that really upset me was of the female MP who was photographed in a room gleefully pointing out the penises of hooded, naked, and bound prisoners. The disturbing thing was how much she was clearly enjoying herself. While I am willing to have American forces use psychological methods to convince prisoners to give up military information, we should do so very cautiously and mindfully. This bitch is enjoying herself and hamming it up for the camera.
It immediately put me in mind of the photographic display that caused such a stir in Germany a few years ago. German soldiers had posed for and sent home photographs of the pogroms on the Eastern Front. Everyday fellows committing atrocities while so unreflective about the ethical ramifications of what they were doing that they wanted to share the joy with their family members.
I am not saying that our prison is morally equivalent to roving extermination vans. My point is that I find it scary that a woman raised in America could so gleefully dehumanize her captives, taking the first step down the slippery slope of the holocaust.
