Miss Cam is very, very angry

[misscam]

What kind of shit is this?!

Seriously, what the hell is this Abu Ghraib thing?

So I've been following this lovely little tale of Abu Ghraib, Saddam's notorious prison which has now gained yet more notority. And this time it can certainly not be blamed on Saddam.

American soldiers humiliating and torturing Iraqi prisoners. Now there is a lovely image. And apparently this was investigated and a report on it was finished in *March* (and apparently Mr. Rumsfeld had not yet read this report by May 4th). The more I hear about this, the more disgusted I get. And if this turns out to be part of some wider practice (which some do suggest, but proof will have to be put forward to show if it is true or not), woe betide the US government.

Links, in case you've missed the story:
The Pentagon reaction.
Bush to speak to Arab TV on the scandal.
BBC on the report into prison abuse.
Aftermath in Falluja.

You know, this is getting worse than any of my very gloomy pre-war Iraq predictions. I feel like I'm watching a trainwreck. Whatever good the US has done in Iraq gets eaten up by scandals like this. How the hell did this happen? And it's especially bad now that the US government is trying to sell that this war was for humanitarian reasons (given that those pesky WMDs turned out to be rather ghostly) and you get images like that. An image is worth a thousand words and right not all those thousand words are all slamming the US. The Pentagon can talk about rotten apples all they like (and even be right about it) and that image of smiling Americans next to humiliated and abused Iraqis will still be as clear as ever in people's mind.

This is just so not good. There's even been pictures of British soldiers involved in abuse as well, though their authenticity has been questioned, so I guess it remains to be seen on that account. If it's true, woe betide the British government as well.

And of course, the sovereignty the US talked about giving on June 30th turns out to at best be a kind of half sovereignty, if that. It'll still be the US army that is the real power in Iraq. And from sneering at the UN and lob not-too-inventive insults at it, the US is now busily trying to draw it back to Iraq. Troop numbers that were to be reduced turned out not to be reduced at all, an ex-Saddam military commander sent to fix the problem of Falluja... All this just screams 'making it up as we go along' to me. Maybe I'm wrong and there was some great plan here, but I'm certainly not seeing it. I see rising deaths and rising anger and neither is filling me with confidence about where this is going.

I mean, Abu Ghraib, for crying out loud. Saddam's own little torture prison, one of the very symbols of his badness. Now with American soldiers abusing Iraqis. I mean, the link there is just appaling. And that aside, it's just appalingly stupid too. Abusing prisoners where Saddam used to do so. Yeah, that's real smart.

So I say again: What kind of shit is this?!

And don't even get me started on the US-Israeli thing. I've run out of energy to hiss at Bush now (there's a first).

Good grief. Abu Ghraib, of all places!

Comments

[belegcuthalion.livejournal.com]

I have seen the photos those soldiers made in prison. A german newspaper showed them in the net, and I refuse to put the link here, for that was yesterday evening, and I'm still feeling sick about it, angry and helpless.

Some of those men and women tried to defense themselves by saying that noone gave them rules what to do with the prisoners and what not. Fine. But what about their own conscience? Where was that silent voice that should have told them to leave those iraqui citizens alone instead of treating them as if they were cheap flesh? Naked bodies, obscenely arranged and this grinning, dumb faces, as if all that was a good joke.... (not to mention "real" injuries that seemingly have happened, too). Lucky enough, there was someone who didn't laugh.

I would like to say that I'm surprised, but I fear, I'm not. Not really. Give power in the wrong hands and to people who've never learned to respect other cultures and not to misuse their abilities, and things like that will happen. It happened in Germany and in Russia and the only difference (if there is any) is that this was done by people who claim to represent a country of shining democracy.

Again, I'm sad. But I'm not surprised.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Europe has certainly seen what lows people in power can fall to all right. Germany in particular perhaps, but it's not like any country is free of it. And even sadder, people who have previously been opressed often take revenge by being opressive themselves. We're seen it in Rwanda in it extreme form and it's not exactly making one root for humanity.

Some of the anger in this case probably has to do with the US claiming to be that shining beacon of freedom and democracy that we should all look up to. Well, certain elements of the US, at least. It's not fair to judge a whole country on the action of its government, though we all do it at times. What a country's goverment does reflects back on the country, there's no way around that.

[belegcuthalion.livejournal.com]

It's not fair to judge a whole country on the action of its government, though we all do it at times.

Only too true, and I do my very best to avoid that kind of misjudgement. It is a big help that I have a good number of american friends now(at least to keep a clear gaze...)

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I think there is a certain danger in Europe right now that the anti-American sentiment that is growing may target any and all Americans. Hardly fair. Half didn't even vote for Europe's most hated Shrub in the first place. But the government does speak for your country and therein lies the problem.

[flamingofeather.livejournal.com]

You're right. About the government reflecting on the country, I mean. Even though there's nothing I possibly could have done...I'm ashamed of my country. Er, not the country itself, because America is a beautiful place filled with (mostly) beautiful people, but it's the government people judge, not the purple mountain majesties and amber waves of grain. Because amber waves of grain aren't very interesting. Because the government should be able to stop things like this from happening.

I remember that ridiculous national outrage and proposed boycott agianst the French, because of something a few government officials said. Not something the vineyard owners and tour guides who would suffer if hundreds of Americans cancelled their vacations, but the government officials.

But those anti-French sentiments were a kind of inane retaliation against the anti-US feelings circulating around the rest of the world. Europe-bashing didn't help international policies a whit, of course. And it was unfounded and just stupid. People believed it, too. People believed that America was in the right this whole time...until now.

The United States has the stability and means to be a "beacon of democracy." Too bad it isn't and never was.

I want to move to Europe.

[misscam.livejournal.com]

Well, Europe's got its own problems, so if you come, bring lots of tomatos to pelt at neo-Nazis.

In Europe we make fun of each other all the time, but usually it's all in good fun. I'll mock Swedes and Swedes will mock Norwegians. Danes will mock us both and we'll all mock Finns. It's when you lose the humour it starts going bad and I fear Europe's anti-American sentiment is going rather sour. Where that might lead, who knows?

[undeadgoat.livejournal.com]

Actually, amber waves of grain are quite interesting. All the little stripy things . . . eh, don't mind me, I just make inane comments in other people's ancient entries.

And if you ran out of reading material while driving (read: being driven by one's parents) through the Midwest in July and August, you'd learn how to be fascinated by cornfields too.