Business As Usual
‘PRESIDENT Carter once said that the hardest thing to persuade the American people was that they were not better than everyone else.
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| Iraqis are made to audition for Scream III |
He didnt have the photograph on the front page of this mornings Guardian to help.
The picture, which shows an Iraqi prisoner hooded and attached to wires in Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, is one of several showing widespread abuse by American soldiers in Iraq.
Another picture shows a prisoner being attacked by a dog, another shows inmates being forced to simulate sex with each other and yet another shows nude inmates being piled up to form a human pyramid.
Who, one wonders, are the evil folks here?
The photographs came to light in January when a soldier reported the abuse to senior officers.
There are some things going on here that I cant live with, he apparently said.
Six soldiers are now facing a possible court martial and a general is under investigation.
But the paper says the soldiers lawyers claim they are being used as scapegoats for a system in which mercenaries hired by the Pentagon give orders without legal accountability.
One civilian contractor, for instance, has been accused of raping a young male prisoner, but hasnt been charged because military law has no jurisdiction over him.
The Abu Ghraib jail was notorious for torture and executions under Saddam Hussein.
It appears the Americans are being more successful than we thought about getting life back to normal in Iraq.’
Posted: 30th, April 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
