Exhibitionistic Revenge at Abu Ghraib

[GoBlue]

The Underlying Dynamic of Post-9/11 America
...
Now we have learned, from Seymour Hersch's investigation reported on Meet the Press on May 16th, that the photography spree at Abu Ghraib might have been inspired by representatives of a secret undercover contingent of elite operatives, sanctioned by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, which had used humiliating photographs of Al Qaeda suspects in Afghanistan and other hot spots to extract vital intelligence data from the suspects' families.

With this possible link to the Bush administration, one wonders to what extent the vengeful exhibitionism at Abu Ghraib might represent, in microcosm, a symptom of America's underlying dynamic after 9/11. After having been profoundly humiliated as the world's greatest superpower by 19 Arab terrorists, the Bush administration has attempted to restore America's wounded pride by humiliating and destroying the Arab world's most powerful despot, Saddam Hussein, and by aggressively and unilaterally imposing democracy on a reluctant, defeated Iraq. How can America establish democracy in the Arab world if its underlying motivation is revenge?

Peter Wolson, Ph. D., is a Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst and former President and Director of Training at The Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies

more at


http://counterpunch.org/wolson05222004.html

[CulturalNomad]

1. Why are we still attempting to answer this canard about

establishing democracy in Iraq - a govt that we like is not democracy - would we have allowed them to elect an Islamic govt? The revenge motive was has propelled the bestial tendencies in our soldiers and oil and Israel is the motivation for the neo-cons. No wonder the world calls us hypocrites - we are!

[xxqqqzme]

2. How can this administration

B fought if the language isn't right. As someone pointed out ages ago - if it had been 19 Bolivians...the head line would not been 19 South Americans attack...... Clarity and focus comes w/ identifying the hijackers as Saudi Arabian nor Arab.

[DarkPhenyx]

3. I'm still waiting for them to release the more "personal" pictures...

...of the soldiers together. Apparently there was a lot of "camaraderie" going on.