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Monday, September 06, 2010 |
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Photo Album - 05/06/2004 8:50 PM In May 2004 some pictures were released showing Iraqi prisoners under humiliating circumstances. These pictures, taken by US Military Police (guards), clearly showed male and female soldiers laughing while naked Iraqi men were coerced into mock homosexual positions. About the same time, other pictures purported to show US soldiers gang-raping Iraqi women – fortunately these were proven to have come from a pornography website. The press had a field day, calling for resignations of administration officials (who’s shocked that Presidential wannabe Kerry was among the voices?). These photos were virtually celebrated by most of the media as proof of the invalidity of the United States – not just the US presence in Iraq, but the very existence of the US. Let me be clear, the humiliation dealt upon these Iraqi prisoners was disgusting and those responsible should be held accountable for their actions in a military court. The actions of these few men and women are not representative of soldiers in general – certainly not representative of Americans in general. It is a devastating blow to our hard efforts – blood, sweat, tears and money – to free the people of Iraq. It is devastating because when we had our greatest opportunity to DEMONSTRATE our high values, a few losers let their frustration rule their actions. Some called what was metered out to those Iraqi prisoners as “torture”. Photos of humiliated men are a lot of bad things, but it is not torture. Countless men and women have endured torture that the mere description of, would keep most civilized people awake at night for weeks. Let’s not diminish the pain of those who have suffered torture by classifying humiliation as torture. What these few sick US soldiers did was wrong, but let’s not put it in the same category as the torture that took place in that same prison before the US liberated that country. There are degrees of bad…what those soldiers did was way-low on the list of bad compared to the acts that took place in that very building as little as 15 months before. Let’s not lose sight of this. Now let’s talk about why these people might have done what they did. This conversation is not a justification for their actions; just what I think is a possible explanation. I believe Americans are idealists, we don’t all agree about what is ideal, but we are mostly idealists. We generally believe in freedom, hope, right-and-wrong, taking our lumps, standing up to bullies, and well, “truth, justice and the American way”. Even most of those who opposed the US liberation/invasion of Iraq would at least agree that the intentions were good – even if misguided (not me, I think it was justified). My point here is that the US (citizens) is not shy about sharing our dirty laundry with the world. When there is a scandal it is put out for everyone to read, not suppressed and hidden. Iran/Contra, Watergate, Clinton’s sleaze, whatever it is, we don’t hide it. We are the most generous people in the history of the world – both within and outside our borders. We won WWII. Did we seize Japan and Germany? No, we rebuilt (and paid for) the infrastructure of these nations and left them better than we found them – free and even provided defense. Who else in the history of the world has done that? What has the US gotten for our generosity and support? Countries like France have no memory and treat us like trash. Those we’ve fed, protected and even freed, rarely have anything but contempt for us. The average Arab hates America and those who don’t, have not the courage to defend us against their own radicals. The middle-east nations are hundreds of years behind the US and behave like animals – they only reason they are any different from the other third world nations on the planet is because they have billions of dollars worth of oil. Of course it is mostly the US who helped these primitive nations develop their own natural resource – just another thing to be hated for. [Remember those who chanted ‘no war for oil” when the Iraq war began? They said the war was all about getting cheap oil into the US. We now enjoy the highest oil prices in history and although we’ve spent billions liberating Iraq we’ve not charged them a penny, but instead forgave billions in debt.] As American’s we’ve suffered greatly and virtually saved the world from evil multiple times. Our thanks for that is insults and financial assaults. To quote a great line from the movie “Network”, ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!’ probably sums up how these abusive MP’s felt as they humiliated those Iraqi’s. I heard Rush Limbaugh on the radio today and he had an intelligent observation I think is worth mentioning here. He pointed out that it is a US policy to not show pictures of dead Americans. We didn’t see any bodies in the rubble of the World Trade Center, from the Cole or other terrorist attacks. We saw people fall/jump from the World Trade Center but we didn’t show their mangled bodies after they hit the ground. It was an act of war committed against the US, and even though those pictures would have been a powerful image to rally Americans against a foe, they were not shown. The image of a few humiliated Iraqi’s outraged Americans, but we have no images for the victims of those who hate us beyond words. No embassy victims to put a face to, no sailors from the Cole, none of the 3,000 people who died on 9/11. Our own media is so consumed with self-hate that it rejoices in bad things about America and plays down the good we do. Today I received a CNN “breaking news” email. The subject? “President apologizes for treatment of Iraqi prisoners”. That’s a headline? No, that’s bias against America. It was the pentagon who released the photos that brought about the outrage to begin with…is that acknowledged? Hardly. I spent most of my youth being teased because I was different. My haircut was unfashionable, I grew up in the country, so couldn’t play most sports, I was short, etc. It was common to be slapped around, humiliated, insulted, etc. Then one day a kid moved into the neighborhood, and we got along ok, but I could physically bully him, and on more than one occasion, I’m sorry to say I did. It wasn’t until later I realized, that at the moment I could best demonstrate my high ideals, I let my years of frustration dictate my actions. I understand how that can happen – it does not make it right, but damn-it, as an American I get tired of our good actions resulting in nothing but abuse and contempt. What these few morons did was wrong, and I wish they had not done it – I am sick that the hard work and sacrifice of so many has been diminished by their actions. But I am not totally without understanding. Perhaps, America, like a great artist, is only really appreciated once deceased kcuhC, chuck@kcuhc.com |