America's shame

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,3604,1207431,00.html

A single image retains the power to shock, even in this multi-media, broadband, 24-hour rolling news age. The picture of an Iraqi prisoner held by US forces in Abu Ghraib prison, forced to stand on a block with electrical wires attached to his body, clothed in a Ku Klux Klan-style hood, is more than just another embarrassment for the Bush administration. This and the other images, of naked Iraqi prisoners being abused and humiliated by their US captors, awakens every dark suspicion of US intentions in Iraq, and is the most effective recruiting sergeant for the forces of resistance inside and outside Iraq. This is not just a colossal blunder by the US - it inaugurates a whole new level of fears and dangers, both in Iraq and among many Muslims throughout the world.

The events inside Abu Ghraib prison opens a shameful episode of US ill-treatment of its prisoners, and has provoked worldwide condemnation. The handful of images - shown on US television on Thursday evening and now reproduced around the globe - also provide graphic evidence in much of the Arab and Muslim world of western sexual decadence and corruption. Since sodomy is often regarded as an extreme humiliation in societies such as Iraq, the pictures and allegations of rape will only confirm and personify the ill-effects of the US invasion and occupation. snip

The US army has put a lethal weapon into the hands of its enemies. It is clutching at the weakest of straws to discount these revolting abuses by comparing them with those of Saddam Hussain's regime. The US and Britain are rightly held up to a higher standard of behaviour, since that is their justification for invading Iraq. The events of Abu Ghraib invoke John Stuart Mill's insight that civilised societies succumb to their previously vanquished opponents only after losing their moral strength. "If this be so, the sooner such a civilisation receives notice to quit the better," Mill warned.

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[NMDemDist2]

1. we have created another generation of terrorists

and we keep doing it over and over and over

the WH are criminal morons!

[Union Thug]

2. agreed..

..and George W. Bush is personally responsible and should spend the rest of his life in a Syrian prison. If only poetic justice were more than a dream...

[Aidoneus]

5. "terrorists"?

[noiretextatique]

6. thanks for questioning this...

one woman's terrorist is another 'freedom fighter.' can it be that we don't know who the terrorists are...YET? hint: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

[liberalhistorian]

3. And the sad thing is that far too

many Americans have no problem with this, even people here on DU!!! They don't see the problem, and that's beyond frightening, almost more so than the torture itself.

[pretzel4gore]

4. though the situation has changed...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/apr2004/iraq-a23.shtml

especially in Falujah, the general slant remains pertinent.
Also WSWS is a well known and respected news gatherer...

snip>
The reaction in the US political establishment has been an increasingly impatient demand that the Bush administration and military reassert control—regardless of the cost in Iraqi and American lives.

The Wall Street Journal editorial of April 20 is a case in point. Declaring Fallujah had to be “cleared out as a terrorist sanctuary” and condemning the ceasefire, it warned the White House: “The fastest way for Mr. Bush to lose support at home would be if Americans see soldiers restrained from doing what it takes to win by UN statements or political control. That’s when his own base begins to walk.”

A murderous logic is at work in Iraq. Having staked so much on the conquest of the oil-rich and geo-politically strategic country, as part of a broader agenda of global domination, US imperialism is signalling it cannot and will not retreat. The entire discussion within the political establishment, from both Republican and Democratic quarters, revolves around sending more troops, allocating more finances to the war and crushing the Iraqi uprising.

Republican senator John McCain summed up the mood sweeping Washington in a speech yesterday. Calling for another 10,000 troops to be sent to Iraq and for greater military spending, McCain declared Iraq was the “biggest foreign policy test in a generation”, that would be “very expensive, difficult and long”.
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