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| Iraq-Jordan | |
| Real thugs unworthy of apology | |
| 2004-05-06 | |
| By STEVEN ZAK Special to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution To judge from the endless expressions of American penitence, one might think we’d finally seen evil and it is us. The incidents at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq have, as one might expect, provided grist for the left’s endless America-bashing mill. Thus, for instance, the Los Angeles Times’ Robert Scheer concluded that "Americans too can be ’evildoers’" and argued further that the nonlethal humiliation of a few terrorists compares with Saddam Hussein’s decades of "torture chambers and rape rooms." Likewise, self-described "human rights" activist Leonard S. Rubenstein in The Washington Post said that the incident "shamed every American," and then went on to fret that the Geneva Convention hasn’t been deemed applicable by the Bush administration to the al-Qaida terrorists at Guantanamo, Cuba. Actually, the Geneva Convention does not and ought not apply to unlawful combatants who don’t themselves honor them. Iraqi "insurgents" are terrorists, many foreign. Iraqi "cleric" Moqtada al-Sadr and his followers are open allies of Hezbollah and Hamas, which alone would disqualify them from any legal entitlement to humane consideration. It’s no great surprise that a shame-filled leftist wouldn’t buy that, but one might expect otherwise from conservatives. Alas, the usually level-headed Jed Babbin in National Review Online worried too about the Geneva Convention, not to mention "common decency." Ralph Peters in the New York Post did likewise and upped the ante by calling the accused American MPs the "thugs of Abu Gharaib." A strong word, "thugs," better applied to, say, mass murderers such as Saddam or former Hamas terrorists Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi. One can only describe as alarming this new brand of self-flagellating moral equivalence, and the way Americans have finally come together -- to bash ourselves. I suppose everyone is entitled to his own threshold of revulsion. But some might find such an outpouring of loathing and rage more appropriately occasioned by, say, terrorist hatefests where Americans are burned alive and hung from a bridge over the Euphrates. Or by the cold-blooded murders of a pregnant 34-year-old Israeli mother and her four daughters — the youngest age 2 — gunned down point blank by the Islamic allies of our enemies in Iraq. None of this is to argue that Americans ought to torment even irredeemably evil captives, but only to suggest that the incidents at Abu Ghraib may better be explained not by reference to sadism but to frustration. We’re at war with an evil not seen since the Third Reich, yet we can’t seem to wage it without an attitude of remorse. Let’s be clear: We’re there because Iraqis, collectively, have created a hellhole that threatens the world, not to mention a nightmare for themselves. Nearly 800 Americans have died trying to clean up their mess, and for that we owe no apologies — not for damaged mosques that house terrorists, not for occupied "holy" cities, not for anything we’re trying to accomplish. If the contrite way we wage war makes you apoplectic, imagine what it feels like to the troops on the front lines. Imagine, even, that you were in custody of enemy combatants who would happily burn you alive if the situation were reversed. Do you think you might, just might, be tempted to do a little venting? Steven Zak is an attorney and writer in California.
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| Posted by:Steven Zak |
| #7 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A bipartisan group of senators is urging the Pentagon to demolish the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in order to exorcise a symbol of both Saddam Hussein's torture chambers and an embarrassing episode for the U.S. military. Couldn't hurt. |
| Posted by: Atropanthe 2004-05-06 4:53:45 PM |
| #6 What appears to have happened is essentially treason against America's stated aims in Iraq. If there is proof of willful abuse on the part of our troops, those found guilty should be busted back to Private, thrown in the stockade, sentenced to hard labor and dishonorably discharged upon release. Nothing else will suffice. BS posturing, Zenster. The core of our judicial system, military or civilian, is fairness. What will SUFFICE and is NECESSARY is for a careful investigation, to be followed by PROPORTIONATE punishment. I'll be damned if I'll let poseurs turn this into a witchhunt. |
| Posted by: Thinking this through amid uniformed troops all around me 2004-05-06 4:28:45 PM |
| #5 someone, Thanks a million for that link to Omar at Iraq the Model! That was the most awesome thing I've read in days. |
| Posted by: Jen 2004-05-06 2:57:53 PM |
| #4 What we have to realize is that this incident has drawn so much attention because it offers an excuse for airing the truly satanic view the left and the Arabs have of the US. But it's an excuse, no more; without this one they've fabricated other excuses in the past and will more in the future. Those open to reason aren't buying the hysteria, and for them we needn't buy in either. What we do have to do is undermine the insane satanic fantasy of the US. That means going through procedures, giving the soldiers the proper punishment for their screw-up, etc., as Bush has made quite clear he'll do. It does not mean hand-wringing, the rhetorical excess Zak decries above, calling for a Pentagon purge, or any other sort of pandering to anti-Americanism. We have to make clear not that we respect the irrational outpourings of the Arab world -- something that would only strengthen the grip nonsense has on them, if only for its evident efficacy -- but, on the contrary, that these have simply nothing to do with our reality, where justice punishes the guards not as appeasement, atonement, or cover-up, but because our system recognizes the legitimate claims against them, and only to that extent. |
| Posted by: someone 2004-05-06 2:23:04 PM |
| #3 I concur with Zak's article: the hysterical hand-wringing over this matter has gone beyond absurd, in my opinion. |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2004-05-06 2:13:28 PM |
| #2 Should have seen the crap on ' |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-05-06 1:51:45 PM |
| #1 There's a lieutenant and some sergeants who weren't doing their jobs keeping control of their troops, maybe at the highest level a captain and a first sergeant who wasn't paying attention. And because of that, the entire Army's damaged. Two things: 1.) All troops sent to Iraq must have gone through orientation of some sort that made explicit mention of how their actions would be under intense global, and especially Arab, scrutiny. This sort of misconduct was more than likely in flagrant opposition to direct orders. 2.) A report mentioned how one of the accused wrongdoers is a "wheeled vehicle specialist." With the vast amount of money being spent on this conflict, I do not care if it cost us TRIPLE, but trained MPs should have been imported regardless of expense. What appears to have happened is essentially treason against America's stated aims in Iraq. If there is proof of willful abuse on the part of our troops, those found guilty should be busted back to Private, thrown in the stockade, sentenced to hard labor and dishonorably discharged upon release. Nothing else will suffice. The damage done by this is incalculable. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-05-06 1:48:11 PM |