Why Abu Ghraib should be taken seriously

There aren't that many people in the media downplaying the terrible significance of apparent tortures and other atrocities in Abu Ghraib Prison. I was quite pleased last night to see Trent Lott of all people speak about these crimes in a seriousminded way. But there are in fact some out there who are treating this mess in a mindblowingly cavalier manner, for reasons of politics (they think this will hurt Bush) or stupidity, and I would ask that such people stop acting like assholes and please rejoin humanity.

For example, as s.z. of World O' Crap informs us, none other than Rush Limbaugh compares the pictures of one of the female torturers standing over a pyramid of naked, hooded Iraqis to something one might see onstage at a Britney Spears concert. He has also compared it to Skull and Bones initiation or fraternity prank, and described it blowing off steam. Insensitive or just insane? You be the judge.

Colin Quinn, the mumbling Cromagnon from Tough Crowd, took this in a perhaps more sickening direction, bringing up the "blowing off steam" description, and comparing these war criminals to VietNam War era John Kerry. Ha ha ha. It's easy to mock John Kerry's performance in VietNam because he actually went there. And to impute the kind of deviant sadism of these prison guards to a decorated war veteran who fought against military policies that violated international law, well that's to be expected, because you can say anything you want about a Democrat. Quinn simultaneously minimizes torture and, in a magical non-sequitur, accuses Kerry of it. But I digress.

The main point is that what happened in Abu Ghraib is not letting off steam. Sodomizing prisoners with a lighbulb is not letting off steam. Raping prisoners and forcing them to rape eachother is not letting off steam. Torturing prisoners until they die is not letting off steam. What happened at Abu Ghraib is a catastrophe, not just in terms of the immediate atrocities that were committed, but in terms of the message it sends to the Iraqi people, to the people of the Middle East, and to the greater world community. A Pentagon official quoted in this article describes the persons responsible for this crimes as "Six morons who lost the war." I think that's probably inaccurate, because the Taguba report suggest that the problems with the prison were certainly not limited to 6 people, but the larger point is probably true.

Despite the caricature of the Middle East given by the never insightful Colin Quinn, and dismayingly by Jon Stewart, there are negative consequences if the mass of Iraqis and Middle Eastern people in general see Americans as bloodthirsty sadistic rapists. It's perfectly true that large numbers of Arabs see Americans as tools of Zionism, as bloodthirsty Crusaders. But it is the presence of people who refuse to see us this way, who reject the lies of the jihadists, that keeps all hell from breaking loose. This is particularly true in Iraq: a country that is being occupied by the US. We probably have too few soldiers in Iraq to keep it secure from the insurgent violence, let alone to turn it into the democratic utopia promised by the neoconservatives just a year ago. If we manage to radicalize Iraqis, to put them into the hands of the Sadrists and Al Qaeda and all the other insurgents operating in Iraq, it will cost American lives and may make American intentions in Iraq impossible. These bastards, who tortured prisoners and then bragged about their inhumanity via photographs, have turned the rumor and rhetoric of our enemies into document. In doing so, they will have the blood of American soldiers on their hands and, one hopes, their consciences.

To adress some other concerns, apologists of this inhumanity such as Colin Quinn explain away this activity by claiming that those imprisoned were probably part of Saddam's state terror apparatus. Even if that were true it would not justify the acts committed, but this probably not true. From Sy Hersh we hear that many of the prisoners were picked up off the street or at roadblocks. From this story we find that prisoners age from 12(!) to 80(!), with most held for anti-coalition activities, not previous regime activities. The fact that we have 12 year olds imprisoned in the very prison Saddam housed his rape rooms and torture chambers makes us look either horribly callous or criminally clueless.

In general, Colin Quinn has a tendency to speak on topics he understands at a sub-toddler level. That he should excuse atrocities is deeply embarrassing, but not too unexpected. Ditto for Rush.