When the propaganda machines were gearing up in
preparation for America’s invasion of Iraq, there was a focus on the
brutality of Saddam and the moral clarity of the U.S. Iraq fell in the
“Axis of Evil,” desperate to be liberated. And Americans bought it.
Congress bought it; the voters bought it; and, perhaps most troubling,
the media bought it.
That moral clarity has started to get a little
muddy. We’ve killed tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians. We’ve
tortured, murdered, and terrorized. Pictures of a soldier shooting a
prostrate, helpless Iraqi and the Abu Ghraib pictures are just the
beginning. In October, 2003, the ACLU, through FOIA requests, filed
suit against Donald Rumsfeld and the government for the systemic abuse
of prisoners. The ACLU received 87 photographs and four videos
depicting gruesome and brutal acts against detainees and prisoners,
including shocking sexual abuse.
According to an Associated Press report, “releasing
photos and videotapes of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison
would aid al-Qaida recruitment, weaken governments in Iraq and
Afghanistan and incite riots against U.S. troops, the chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff warned in court papers….Gen. Richard B. Myers
wrote in recently unsealed court papers filed in U.S. District Court in
Manhattan that it was ‘probable that al-Qaida and other groups will
seize upon these images and videos as grist for their propaganda
mill.’”
When Americans next become the victims of
terrorism, the blood will be on the hands of Rumsfeld, Bush and others
who perpetuated and allowed such barbaric acts. Myers, in no ambiguous
terms, credits Al Qaeda’s might to what our troops are doing in Iraq.
Myers said that “his views about the pictures were
supported by Gen. John P. Abizaid, head of the United States Central
Command, and Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the commander of the American
forces in Iraq.” We want to invade without consequences, commit crimes
without repercussions. We prefer macho posturing and playground
rhetoric to diplomacy and law.
These pictures and videos that will soon be
unleashed on the public consciousness need to be a wake up call that
elicits our outrage and our condemnation. These images need to make the
reality of the situation clear and need to help expose the truth: this
is not a war; it is a crime.