Abu Gharib and the American Way (Taranto's take)

WSJ Opinion Journal ^ | May 5, 2004 | James Taranto

[Michael.SF.]

Cutting to the chase:

Reuters reports that Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who is in charge of reforming the U.S. military detention system in Iraq, offered both an apology and a promise:

"I would like to personally apologize to the people of Iraq for the actions of a small number of leaders and soldiers who have violated our policies," he said.

And:

"I will personally guarantee that this will not happen again in any of the operations we have for detention and intelligence gathering."

All in all, we'd have to say the American system is working rather well. The abuses have led to a thorough investigation, an apology, a vow from the president himself that justice will be done, and a promise that reforms are in the works so this won't happen again.

The New York Times has an interview with Hayder Sabbar Abd, who says he spent six months in U.S.-run prisons. Most soldiers "treated him well and with respect," he says, until November, "when punishment for a prisoner fight at Abu Ghraib degenerated into torture":

That night, he said, he and six other inmates were beaten, stripped naked (a particularly deep humiliation in the Arab world), forced to pile on top of one another, to straddle one another's backs naked, to simulate oral sex. American guards wrote words like "rapist" on their skin with Magic Marker, he said. The Times says Abd plans to travel home to Nasiriya, but he won't stay there:

He said he would be too ashamed. He wants the American government to pay compensation. He said he felt he needed to move out of Iraq, and despite it all, he said he would not refuse an offer to move to America.

He wants to move to America. That says it all, doesn't it?

[Michael.SF.]

So after all of this horrible abuse, the guy would move to the USA.

Would John McCain have been willing to move to Hanoi in 1974?

[billorites]

This happens to all men occassionally.
Shouldn't mean anything.

[FBD]

..."The New York Times has an interview with Hayder Sabbar Abd, who says he spent six months in U.S.-run prisons. Most soldiers "treated him well and with respect," he says, until November, "when punishment for a prisoner fight at Abu Ghraib degenerated into torture":

That night, he said, he and six other inmates were beaten, stripped naked (a particularly deep humiliation in the Arab world), forced to pile on top of one another, to straddle one another's backs naked, to simulate oral sex. American guards wrote words like "rapist" on their skin with Magic Marker, he said. The Times says Abd plans to travel home to Nasiriya, but he won't stay there:

He said he would be too ashamed. He wants the American government to pay compensation. He said he felt he needed to move out of Iraq, and despite it all, he said he would not refuse an offer to move to America.

He wants to move to America. That says it all, doesn't it?"

[hunter112]

He might want to move here to get even with us.

By the way, the compensation issue is raised in this article, and I expect every Iraqi con man (sorry for the redundancy) to come out and demand his bucks. We're going to end up paying it, too. Oh, well, just give away the money we were going to rebuild the place with, they will piss it away on something, if we rebuilt, they'd just blow it up anyway.

[Dr. Frank fan]

Minor quibble to an otherwise good blog post:

stripped naked (a particularly deep humiliation in the Arab world),

Look, I don't want to be misunderstood here, and these abuses (if not "torture") certainly are intolerable and possibly war crimes under the Geneva Convention, but let's get something straight...

Being naked (by itself) is not "torture". And I don't really give a rat's ass what may or may not be "a particular deep humiliation in the Arab world", that has no bearing on the preceding issues (whether it's torture, whether it's a crime, whether it violates Geneva Convention, whether it should be punished, how it should be punished, etc.....)

We in the West have this habit of condescending to and playing patty-cake with the (supposed) beliefs, mores, superstititions, feelings, etc., of this "the Arab world" place. (I speak not just of this "being naked is so horrible in their world!" stuff, but other things you often hear such as "can't attack a 'holy city'", "can't attack during a 'holy month'", etc.) The effect of this is both to infantilize and dehumanize these "Arabs", and to make it virtually impossible for us to act in self-defense against aggressors if/when they happen to be Arabs.

[MagnoliaB]

Where was the Arab World's outrage over the abominations committed by Saddam on his own people by gassing, torture, murder, rape, maiming etc. in these very same prisons???? Why did it not matter then but it matters now?

[alexandria]

Being naked (by itself) is not "torture". And I don't really give a rat's ass what may or may not be "a particular deep humiliation in the Arab world"

Thank you for saying this, I agree totally. Let's just get one MORE thing right out in the open shall we.
If you are arrested here, in these United States, you will be stripped naked and forced to preform a small (and humiliating) series of actions to "show" that you are not carrying contraband.
Remember, this is when you are first brought in. At this point you have only been CHARGED with something, even something as minor as driving on a suspended license.
I want to know why the hell the leftist media is screaming about these prisoners that are damn well suspected of acts harmful to our countryman and not what an average Joe Blow can end up having to deal with over a case of mistaken identity.

[Landru]

>He said he would be too ashamed. He wants the American government to pay compensation. He said he felt he needed to move out of Iraq, and despite it all, he said he would not refuse an offer to move to America.
"He wants to move to America. That says it all, doesn't it?"

Ummmmm, not really.
But the, "He wants the American government to pay compensation." sure does.

Are we as a nation so damned stupid we'll swallow this obvious Liberal-Socialist inspired bullshit hook line & sinker, again?

...*that's* the question, my friend.