Another concern regarding the Abu Ghraib survivors

[Solly Mack]

As many of you know my husband is an MP, just returned in April from Iraq. He did not work in any of the prisons, though he did have to live outside of Bucca for his last 2 weeks in Iraq....well after the abuse scandal broke there and the MP company responsible were replaced.

Last night we were out to dinner when he started talking about the torture pictures. He had expressed his disgust before ..and he raged at the lies by higher command while watching the "hearings." ...but last night he expressed a concern that has been "eating at me for days now"


My husband is worried that those being released from Abu Ghraib might be killed now...by family....for the shame, humiliation, and torture they endured at the hands of those MPs. He said some will see it as an honor thing...and to cleanse the family name, they would have to rid the "symbol" of their dishonor. Let me explain..

My husband is the type who doesn't hide behind a military post-he goes out on the world economy to listen, talk, and learn about others. Most of his pictures of Iraq are of his Iraqi friends...in their homes, at their tables, sharing meals..laughs and talks...They liked him so much, they sent me a gift in honor of him. ..and the gift was explained exactly in those terms. Point being, my husband got to know the people, their customs, and their various beliefs..He does this wherever he goes.

Every new thing he learned he couldn't wait to share with me. Before he left, we agreed he would learn the truth for both of us - since he was going to Iraq and I was not. His thinking when he left was...he couldn't change the bad about to happen but maybe he could make a difference, no matter how small, even if it's just touching the life of one person and making a connection.


He now worries that those soldiers have sent the survivors of Abu Ghraib to their eventual deaths because some of the Iraqi families will just not forgive, what they will see as shame brought upon the family...and will kill those who survived. He said not all will see it this way but that some will..and those some will just quietly disappear the survivors within their own families.

He said.."Those soldiers will have killed those (surviving) Iraqis just the same as if they had pulled the trigger themselves"

He never finished his dinner. We went back to the house and he spent the rest of the night, alone, behind a shut door. Utter silence.

Dear Chimp,

The "mission" is NEVER "accomplished". Just ask the survivors...ALL the survivors.

[plcdude]

1. post tramatic

it will take sometime and a considerable amount of patience on your part. He has much to work through and at first it is a lonely task but it also important to have him talk with others that shared his life there in order to get these thoughts out in the open. Stand by him and let him know you love him as he is right now. O and don't let him drink alone that is a road to easily taken and too difficult to leave. From someone who has been there and back.

[Solly Mack]

4. Thank you.

We are both taking it slow. It won't be a quick road back and we both understand that.

[lovedems]

2. I remember a republican congressmen stating "Nobody ever died from

humiliation" (I can't remember what idiot, Zell Miller I believe) and my first thought was, "Yes, In Muslim communities they do. Their tribes will kill them, humiliation and shame are causes for death."

It tells you how little people know of other cultures AND how they use cultures to engage in exploitation of culture no-no's. I saw this morning on CNN that prisoners were made to eat pork and drink alcohol which are also big no-no's in the muslim world.

It is so friggin' obvious someone knew what they were doing when they ordered this kind of torture. It came from the top.

[Solly Mack]

5. Exactly.

America is not only killing with weapons..they are killing with culture....leaving a legacy of death that reaches far and wide.

[lovedems]

10. This is a conversation on Hardball last night...

A republican from Virgina actually had the audacity to state "they have stores in Iraq" and the grunts did this all by themselves. It was soooo stupid, I had to laugh. Then I felt like crying because I can't believe they are resorting to this to play the CYA game.


MATTHEWS: Senator, do you believe that individual people from Virginia, from Maryland who have been accused here, bought dog collars, bought leashes, bought hoods and brought them over to Iraq with them, or do you think they were issued by the military intelligence people over there? Who is responsible for this whole line of questioning with these people the way they have been stripped and shackled?

Are you saying a couple country folk from Virginia and Western Maryland came up with these ideas and these implements of torture?

ALLEN: I think that that all is being investigated, who is culpable.

MATTHEWS: But does common sense tell you that they brought the dog collars and the leashes with them?

ALLEN: It wouldn‘t make common sense to me, no. I don‘t know where they got them. I suppose they have stores there.

[sushi]

3. Especially the female prisoners

I think they are in most danger when they are back home. Who knows some of them might not wait to be killed but commit suicide out of shame. How can they ever forget what was done to them.

[Solly Mack]

8. Yes

He said they were especially vulnerable to suicide and not just "honor" killings.

[Karenina]

6. There is a SYTEMIC ROT

at the core of the "American" *MIC. Billions are chewed up in it and if we are collectively too stupid to apply some brakes, billions will die.

Cassandra? Was meinst Du, denn?

[Solly Mack]

9. and "rot at the core spreads outward" * Frank Herbert

You are so right. :(

[Eric J in MN]

7. LA Times article on what happens to some released prisoners

There is an LA TIMES article on this:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-stigma11may11,0,7929057.story?coll=la-headlines-world#

[CWebster]

11. They are human beings capable of compassion

Some may even view it as a badge of survival at the hands of satan. There is always hope and there is always love.