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May 18,
2004
After Congress viewed hundreds of new images from Iraqi prisons, about
1,800 images shown for two seconds each, the New York Times published
an article
covering some of the responses from our representatives and their reasons
for probably suppressing these images or shielding them from the public.
In the understatement of the day, representative Trent Franks (R-Arizona)
said that he was particularly offended by a photograph of a prisoner sodomizing
himself with a banana. Mr. Franks comment was that; "My conclusion is
that that was probably coerced somehow." Gee, how astute.
Proving that "military intelligence" is truly an oxymoron, the Times reported
the following: "The explicit nature of the photographs left the lawmakers
deeply conflicted over whether the images should be made public. Some
who previously favored a public release said they had changed their minds
and were swayed by remarks from military personnel that to do so would
violate the prisoners' right to privacy and protection from humiliation."
Wow, the prisoner's "right to privacy and protection from humiliation."
Isn't that what has already been violated? What more could we do except
expose these pictures to their family, friends, and neighbors? And aren't
we told that that was the purpose of taking the pictures in the first
place, to use the photos to intimidate other prisoners with "this could
happen to you" and to threaten them with the embarrassment of releasing
these images in their communities?
Besides that, the pictures I've seen generally show the mistreated prisoners
with sacks or women's underwear over their heads and/or otherwise not
showing their faces making it difficult to identify individuals anyway.
And many of the photos we've seen have been doctored to "blur out" their
genitals to, I suppose, protect our American sensibilities. We could do
the same with their faces, couldn't we? There doesn't have to be any further
embarrassment or violation of the "right to privacy" for the mistreatment
that has already occurred and been recorded.
The whole thing is beginning to go from shock and horror to bordering
on the ridiculous and the absolutely sick. Whatever we do, it just seems
to further the idea of our moral decadence and callousness.
Anyone who watches television must have some inkling and have some conflicted
feelings about our claim to the moral high ground. We've got 24/7 tabloid
news services covering everything from mothers killing their children
and pedophile priests to daily car chases, kidnappings, rape, murder and
other sins.
I know several people who will not look at the first set of pictures that
were somehow released. Evidently, these people are either shocked enough
by the words describing what happened or they belong to a class that simply
turns its back on anything that upsets or challenges their belief that
we are the good guys. Unfortunately, the latter are usually the same people
who, by their silence, condone what's happening.
What really surprises me personally is the fact that it seems to take
pictures to horrify Americans. Without these pictures we do not seem capable
of recognizing or visualizing what happens to innocent people when we
bomb their cities, use cluster bombs and depleted uranium, run tanks through
their houses, or shoot people because our youngsters find themselves in
a situation where they don't speak the language and cannot distinguish
between the innocent and the enemy – a situation similar to what we faced
in Viet Nam – and a situation where they should never have found themselves
in the first place because all of the reasons for invading Iraq were nothing
but a pack of lies.
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