I've seen some of the recently released Abu Ghraib photos - those published by the Australian press and then more this morning published on Salon. If Seymour Hersh is right, these aren't even the worst.
The US government doesn't want these photos released because they will anger people and may set off riots and violence, particularly in the Middle East. They say it violates the privacy of the prisoners in the images. Well, cupcake, I've got news for ya. Far more than these prisoners' privacy has been invaded, and that was done by US troops with the knowledge and approval of the chain of command.
Some of those depicted are dead. Others look like they have cigarette burns on them, have open wounds, are bound and shackled in painful positions, are being beaten... Oh, heck, let's be wild and crazy and call it what it is. They are being tortured. At the hands of US soldiers.
I am not particularly eager to have people rioting over this, but it is going to happen. There are Americans who are going to be hurt, possibly tortured and/or killed, in retaliation for what is depicted, people who have no connection to the atrocities save for nationality.
All the government and wingnut apologists can bleat is that the pictures shouldn't have been released. News flash - hiding torture does not make torture OK. It is astounding that this basic lesson of morality escapes the understanding of the Bushistas, but there it is. If you kill someone and hide the fact, that doesn't negate the murder. It just means you haven't been found out yet. You guys got found out.
The primary blame for ALL of it, the brutalization of the prisoners and any harm that comes to Americans as a result of them being widely shown, rests on the desk of George Bush. He wanted to be a war preznit. He is using the "War on Terror" in a cynical and fascistic power grab in the US. He thinks might makes right.
Anyone reading this blog who voted for Bush in 2004 is also directly and unequivocally complicit in the atrocities depicted and in any harm that comes to your countrymen as a result of the news getting out. You voted that killing and torturing people is OK.
Now, go look at the fucking pictures and see what you voted for. What's that? A little too graphic? Don't like looking at blood spattered walls and naked people? Too bad. This is what you formally stand in approval of doing.
Anglachel
2 comments:
I really have no patience with anyone who voted for Bush in 2004, and yet somehow feels surprised and as if they are not accountable for what has gone on. It was already clear what was going on at the time of the election, and voting for Bush was a thumbs up to that.
Oh, and on a related note, I've had someone get all huffy and offended when I pointed out that by supporting the war in Iraq, they were basically saying that it was acceptable to kill women and children, any innocent civilians. (This is true of any war, but Iraq was the one under discussion in that context.) Mental disconnects are astonishing sometimes.
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