Posted on 05/10/2004 3:54:35 PM PDT by IronJack
Seems half the world is enraged at the recent revelation that some Iraqi prisoners of war were “abused." And the other half is apologizing for it. But before we beat our breasts and rend our robes, let’s take a calmer look at exactly what happened.
The charges are that, on a handful of occasions, Iraqi detainees were stripped naked and photographed in degrading positions. Apparently this is an offense of some magnitude in the sexually convoluted world of Islam, and a cultural breach of unimagined proportion. I guess the protocol with filthy, half-mad religious zealots captured by your soldiers is to give them a plush Ralph Lauren bathrobe and a bar of Nivea and have a buxom valet escort them to the spa to clean up.
The most serious allegation is that a detainee was sodomized with either a broom handle or a chemical glow stick. Apparently other horror stories too grisly for the unhardened psyche are yet to be revealed. Heaven knows what the future holds, but for now, these two complaints are giving our allies, our media, and Congress the vapors.
I think we need to separate the two sets of incidents. The former is embarrassing - especially to the Iraqis - degrading, humiliating, probably unnecessary, and probably counterproductive. But not criminal. The latter is not only criminal but inexcusable.
Abu Ghraib holds citizen criminals, Iraqis detained for questioning, and actual prisoners of war. While cursory attempts are made to keep the three elements separate, no particular marking system has been adapted to clearly differentiate them. Consequently, all three classes of prisoners are treated the same way.
The problem is that enemy combatants merit a different level of treatment than someone stopped for running a red light. While it may be culturally discomforting, it is perfectly justifiable to strip-search prisoners of war and to run them through a delousing process. Such rigorous handling is probably less justified when applied to a shoplifter or a material witness to a car accident.
These breaches can be addressed by for effectively segregating the different classes of detainees and applying management techniques appropriate to the level of security implicit in each. In other words, this is merely a lapse in administrative procedure, not a moral shortcoming.
Leading prisoners around on leashes or piling them up like squirming specimens to be photographed is a waste of time and sophomorically sadistic, but a war crime it is not. In fact, to the degree that such actions demonstrate the clear subjugation of the prisoner and the power of his captors, it may serve as a valuable psychological tool to command obedience in a recalcitrant crowd. There is no physical pain involved, no permanent scarring or life-threatening abuse. The prisoners are simply shown that their lives, their modesty, and their comfort are no longer theirs to control. It enforces a sense of vulnerability and defeat, and may prove the final act that convinces a rebellious prisoner that cooperation is the preferable alternative. That cooperation can translate into lives saved, including the life of the prisoner.
The same message could be communicated - albeit not as dramatically - other ways. And certainly such childish antics do not reflect well on a nation (vainly) trying to win hearts and minds. But make no mistake, gentler methods would earn the same exaggerated complaints from the prisoners, the same feigned dudgeon from the Arab world, and the same partisan haymaking from the anti-Bush mob. The errant gaolers have been properly reprimanded and reassigned and new, less intrusive procedures implemented that shield the administration from these vapid criticisms. And it should end there.
The charge of rape is a different matter entirely. If true, this is the sadistic act of a man who has allowed his personal hatred to override his sense of duty. Such a man has no business guarding anyone or anything. He does not deserve to wear the uniform of this country that so many before him have worn while carrying out exemplary acts of courage and honor. The military establishment should bring all its legal forces to bear on this individual, to hunt him down, press criminal charges against him, and exact justice befitting the crime.
However, this “scandal” should not be allowed to blossom beyond its scope. With an eighth of a million men and women halfway around the world in one of the most difficult environments imaginable, it is statistically inevitable that isolated individuals will breach the standards of decency and law. After all, this isn’t a game of euchre in the parlor. That is why the military has a legal enforcement arm, and why that arm functions so effectively. Ted Kennedy and Tom Daschle and Tom Harkin should not be allowed to assault the administration by claiming any artificial high ground. George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld are no more responsible for this incident than the governor of Massachusetts is responsible for a vehicular homicide committed by one of his citizens in a drunken stupor.
The charge of “atrocity” resonates well with the anti-war public, and disturbs even those Americans who heartily endorse the regime change in Iraq. The Left knows this and has since My Lai. They also know that it is a powerful fifth-column issue they can use to undermine support for the war and, by extension, the administration they hate. That level of politicization serves no one except the kingmakers and power brokers accustomed to disguising their nefarious motives behind masks of nobility.
And this war, this shadowy war against a great evil, cannot be politicized to that degree. America must remain committed to rooting out the seeds of villainy in all the dark corners where it dwells. It is a task as big as mankind itself, and one that will not admit of small minds second-guessing it. We have to be above the petty squabbles and political potboiling if we’re ever going to chase down this specter and put a stake through its heart. All right. Shame on the hardhearted jailers who embarrassed their captives. Shame on the sadist who sodomized a prisoner entrusted to him (if that event ever proves real). Shame on the officers who failed to train and command their troops to the standards America demands.
Now, can we get on with the task at hand, secure in the knowledge that our troops are as PC as the rest of our society? Well, actually, no, we can’t. So why try? It was this very fear of treading on cultural toes that led to the debacle in Viet Nam. That effort was hamstrung by the same second-guessers and media milquetoasts who are hooting today, and whose outrage sounds oddly rehearsed. We can ill afford a repeat of their fifth-column subterfuge in this endeavor, when our way of life and the safety of all we hold dear is at stake. We were naïve in Viet Nam. We’re not any more.
Today, the south end of Manhattan lies strangely barren. There’s a gouge on a hillside in Pennsylvania. And part of the Pentagon doesn’t quite match the rest of the building. There are 3,500 grieving families and thousands of friends and colleagues who know the grim chore we face, and who are counting on us to stay the course. If we make mistakes along the way, we correct them and move on. But we do not abandon the great task before us simply because we cannot do it perfectly.
As long as we’re handing out shame, save the lion’s share for the gadflys who are willfully blind to the successes of this mission but who are focused to distraction on its rare failures.
Bingo. Last night I heard Ted Kennedy bloviating about how this incident "damaged our moral credibility worse than any other crisis in this nation's history." Apparently, Sen. Kennedy has forgotten the crisis that arose from Mr. CLinton's philandering. You know, the one in which the chief executive of the United States was impeached for only the second time in two centuries?
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