Veteran muckracker Seymour Hersh has a devastating account of the abuses performed by Americans at the Abu Ghraib prison outside of Baghdad.
The abuses have been going on a long time. Hersh got hold of a 53-page secret Pentagon report that lists the abuses in some detail:
Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.
Many of these Iraqis apparently had nothing to do with the insurgency, and were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Forget for the moment all the arguments about whether the abusers’ acts were right or wrong or justified or in accord with the Geneva Convention, etc. All that matters right now is what this means for America as we continue to pretend Iraqis view us as liberators and saviors.
Obviously these acts of stupidity and depravity can’t hold a candle to what Saddam used to do. But at a time when we are right on the verge of losing the support of the population we fought to liberate, this is as awful as it could get. How supportive would you be of a government that took US prisoners and urinated on them and tortured them and humiliated them, with the “security team” cheering and laughing in the background? And that’s how its perceived — it wasn’t a bunch of untrained fools who committed the torture, it was America.
And it looks like the only ones who’ll be punished will be the little people, none of the officers who are supposed to be responsible (they’re just going to be relieved of duty, it seems).
It’s been a bad few weeks for our little adventure in Iraq, but I won’t be surprised if this turns out to be pivotal. How on earth do we win back the trust of the man on the street in Iraq after he’s seen these images?
Most Americans in Iraq, I believe, want to see the operation succeed and want to build a better Iraq. But the entire prinicple of nation-building is founded on trust. Right now, any trust that had remained has been pretty well obliterated.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men….
UPDATE: Seymour Hersh’s 3rd article is just out, and it’s merciless.
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By shangveteran
American troops torture and abuse their prisoner in Iraq. I am very angered at it.In China ,newspaper ,CCTV and other media report this continuously and fervidly.If china military people or china police torture or abuse their prisoner can China newspaper or CCTV or other media have the freedom to report continuously and fervidly?
May 1, 2004 @ 9:01 pm | Comment
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By richard
China’s track record in this area isn’t perfect. They have a long history of torturing political prisoners. It is fine for CCTV and other media in China to point out what the US has done, but they should also look at what China has done — China has little to boast about when it comes to mistreating prisoners.
May 1, 2004 @ 9:16 pm | Comment
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By My Blogs
Iraqi prisoners
I know the news is full of information about the ill-treatment of Iraqi prisoners, so I don’t want to spend a lot of time writing about it here. However, I like to browse/read blogs from other Aisan countries, especially China, and I’ve been reading t…
May 2, 2004 @ 1:55 am | Comment
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By wayne
Nothing like walking into a 7-11 here in Taiwan and seeing pictures of British soldiers urinating on Iraqi prisoners of war on the front page of several newspapers.
I wonder what the coverage is like in the mainland. My guess is that the CCP is covering up these pictures to keep a lid on any more anti-US demonstrations from breaking out, but I’m not there.
May 2, 2004 @ 3:35 am | Comment
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By Joseph Bosco
Richard,
I have been having Internet problems for several days which did not straighten out until a short while ago. I had been putting together a long post on the Hersh piece–and the whole prison abuse scandal–that I finally was able to put up about an hour ago. Since I could not get around the Internet, I did not know you had already posted on it. Sorry.
However, my take on it is that we have definitely forfeited all moral authority to preach human rights abuse to anone for decades to come. This was not just a one-time aberration, but a systemic pattern of abuse based upon demonization of a culture made whole by the arrogance of the mindset that sent our troops there not as liberators but as armed missionaries for the Bush way of life. Anyway, I wrote a bit about it on the site. Give it a look and see what you think. On these kinds of things we seem to be pretty much in sync.
Keep giving ’em hell, and talk at ya soon.
Joseph
May 2, 2004 @ 8:46 am | Comment
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By richard
Joseph, I loved your post and have linked to it already. I don’t know where you are at the moment (I assume you’re off for the holidays), but keep up the great work.
May 2, 2004 @ 4:13 pm | Comment
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By jeremy
Muckraker has such negative overtones. Hersh is a journalist extraordinaire.
As for the abuse of prisoners, it’s a reality for both war and civilian prisons – worldwide.
May 3, 2004 @ 11:07 am | Comment
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By richard
Hersh has always been one of my favorites. I see “muckracker” as a compliment.
We can’t just say “these things happen” when it comes to abuse of Iraqis. It can literally destroy our entire trillion-dollar, 800-lives adventure over there. The entire enterprise is based on their greeting us as liberators and allowing us to help them shape a new form of government. No trust and respect, no embrace of US-imposed government. This is a HUGE problem and it has thrown us back to square one.
May 3, 2004 @ 11:11 am | Comment
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By eat
the real photos:
http://hackingthemainframe.com/coppermine/wm.php?pid=9832&mode=normal
pass them on!
May 9, 2004 @ 12:38 pm | Comment