Abu Ghraib, Still in the News

On the 14th of this month, I posted a link to a NYT article concerning Specialist Jeremy Sivits, a serviceman who had been involved in the humiliation and abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison.  Sivits was willingly giving evidence on other individuals involved, which, in light of the many articles and commentary calling for heads to roll throughout the military and on into the Whitehouse, seemed to me, to encourage some thought on the subject of responsibility, rather than blindly feeling, and then lashing out, at this atrociousness.

This morning, Drudge links to an article which is titled “Many Iraq Prison Abuses Occurred in Nov." Within that article, is this sentence.

"Many of the worst abuses that have come to light from the Abu Ghraib prison happened on a single November day amid a flare of insurgent violence in Iraq (news - web sites), the deaths of many U.S. soldiers and a breakdown of the American guards’ command structure."

Note that it states that the majority of the abuses occurred on one “single” day, in November, though the headline veils this, by stating “in Nov.,” rather than noting the “single” day.

Now, if we take the information from Sivits, and from the article noting the majority of the abuse took place on a “single” day, does this not cause one to think that possibly the call for heads to roll as high into the chain of command as possible is a bit over the top, a knee jerk reaction, based on feelings rather than thought?

Posted by on 05/22 at 04:34 AM

  1. That’s an easy one:  No.

    First off, while most of the pictures that have been floating around lately may indeed have been taken on a single day or some other brief span, it’s a bit of a leap to jump from that to the conclusion that “the majority of the abuse” took place on a single day.

    While the pictures are very newsworthy, attention-grabbing, and so forth - the abuse story is much bigger than the story of how and when those pictures were taken.

    Serious allegations are being made of officially-sanctioned torture at other prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gitmo and elsewhere.  Serious not just in the “any allegation of torture is pretty serious” sense, but in the “U.S. military investigators and witnesses say so too” sense.

    Lawyers from the Justice Department, from the CIA and from the Pentagon were all called upon to look for loopholes in the prohibitions on torture in the Geneva Conventions, in U.S. law, and in the International Convention Against Torture.  Documentary evidence of this is coming to light (to accompany the testimony of Rumsfeld and company that their lawyers had cleared everything).  Cabinet-level folks not only knew what they were doing, but knew that what they were doing risked running afoul of torture prohibitions and tried to figure out their war crimes dodge ahead of time.

    This “most of the abuse happened on a single day” excuse is a pretty thin straw to grasp, but I guess if your game is trying to find excuses for the U.S. policy in Iraq that’s about all you’ve got left at this stage.

    Posted by David Gross  on  05/22  at  12:20 PM

  2. Dave - Trying to find excuses is not my “game” at all.  My game is rational consideration of this barbarism; which was committed by Americans who should have been, in my estimation, above such banal cruelties; rather than blathering feelings and knee jerk reactions.  The one bad apple not spoiling the whole bunch analogy does bear consideration.  Though the actions of the few, have cast negative aspersions on all Americans, not all Americans are cut from that cloth.

    Your comment is evidence that you are at least thinking about it.

    Posted by  on  05/22  at  01:29 PM

  3. So is this prison abuse worse that when FDR (a Democrat) humiliated the Japanese-Americans during WWII by placing them all in internment camps?

    Abu Gharaid is worse than that ... right? At least to hear Liberals talk ...

    Posted by  on  05/24  at  07:26 AM

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Submit the word you see below:


Next entry: A Lab Experiment Gone Awry?

Previous entry: I Still Don't Much Care for Rats

<< Back to main