Posted on 05/18/2004 8:58:43 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback
The prisoner abuse in Iraq is a public-relations and foreign-policy disaster. It undermines, you see, our efforts to win over the hearts and minds of Muslims by introducing them to liberal democracy, which brings freedom, prosperity, and individual dignity to all people.
Well, tragically, radical Islamists can now point to these photos as examples of what they have always charged: that is, that the West really brings decadence and moral decay. If I were recruiting terrorists, I’d show those lewd photos to everyone I met as proof of the West’s decadence and the need for a jihad.
As I’ve tried to figure out how this travesty occurred, I’ve considered my own experiences in the Marine Corp. Had I been in charge of the brig in a time of war and the intelligence officers ordered me to “soften these guys up for interrogation,” I would have made them sleep with their lights on all night; I would have awakened them every fifteen minutes; I would have played loud music, as we did in Panama to rattle the nerves of Noriega and his henchmen who were hiding out. I would have given them a rifle butt in the stomach if they gave me any sass. And I would have harassed them and made their lives so miserable they would want to tell us what we wanted to know.
But not in my wildest imagination can I conceive of ever doing what our National Guardsmen did to the prisoners in Iraq. Even if it had occurred to me, it would have been so repulsive I can’t imagine I would have acted on it. And I was no paragon of virtue in those days; that was before my conversion.
Why did it even occur to our soldiers today to molest and embarrass these prisoners sexually? I think it is in part because we live in a pornography-soaked culture. You can’t turn on the television without seeing it. The number of movies that you can watch is minimal because so many are filled with moral rot, four-letter words, and brazen sex acts. The Internet is full of pornography, and when we make efforts to curb it, the courts strike them down. And so our kids are raised in this kind of garbage.
Then when they become MPs in a prison in Iraq, they don’t pull out the fingernails or set off loud radios to harass prisoners. Instead they strip them and make them pose in pretend sex acts—just like pornography. And then they film it—incredible.
All of us should be praying somehow that we can recover from this and that the military will not be permanently scarred. Most of our men and women in uniform make us proud. And we’ve got to work, somehow, to see that this public relations disaster is rectified. All of us have to pray for peace and for freedom in the Middle East , which is what the War in Iraqis all about.
At the same time we need to take a good, hard look at ourselves. Have we allowed the environment to be so polluted with pornography that we have young men and women putting on the uniform and behaving in this reprehensible, lewd manner? A good question for the public debate at the moment is whether we have brought all of this on ourselves by our addiction to or toleration for pornography. And are we doing enough to crack down on pornography? I noticed that the Justice Department has stepped up some prosecutions.
We have all got to redouble our efforts to clean up this culture and shield our kids from moral pollution. Yes, we must clean up the mess in Iraq, alright, but it is a mess that reminds us that we have one here at home that we had better clean up as well.
We should indeed, but this will no more permanently scar our fine armed forces than My Lai did. 99.99% of U.S. soldiers are better than this.
If anyone wants on or off my BreakPoint Ping List, please notify me here or by freepmail.
You know, Rush made a similar point, and the leftist free speechers had a hissy fit.
The people who are most hysterical about what has happend at Abu Ghraib are the first ones who will deny that our pornographic culture had anything to do with it.
Yep. I mean, put yourself in their heads (I know, it's dark in there, but do it anyway) and imagine that...
1. You think that Abu Ghraib is just as bad as the years of torturocracy under Saddam that you never bothered to protest.
2. You...um...build forearm strength to similar footage every day.
When somebody makes the connection for you, that's going to be some serious cognitive dissonance. I'm surprised they don't blow the backs of their heads out with that realization. I guess they project that energy toward the person making the connection instead.
Freedom. What you gonna do with it. Jesus says have courage. Right now we have much power over Iraq and especially prisoners. The answer is for the Iraqi people to manage their own soveriegn nation. Evil and temptation will always be here. The abu graib scandal just highlights how remarkable it is that the world's greatest superpower has enough leadership to destroy Saddam Hussein and to turn over power to the local Iraqis.
It seems no one has yet pointed out that that it is, in fact, the combination of sex and violence that is the problem, not sex alone.
The last time I checked bred breasts never hurt anyone.
Europe is more awash in sex than anywhere in the world, but it is considerably less violent. By this I mean the police are less violent and the citizens are less violent. Only the soccer fans are a problem and it is really the British (who consume the most American Pop culture) are the worst.
It is the sex combined with violence and devoid of love that is sick in American culture.
Doesnt mean they are't out there. Just that they haven't been cuaght or filmed themselves. Moreover, I doubt you are silly enough to imply that one exceptional circumstance of sexual perversion should be used as a basis for judgement of an entire society.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.