The Abu Ghraib calamity can, apparently, get worse.
“The ACLU just won a suit to get the photographs we have not yet seen. June 30th, they get released — horrifying beyond belief,” [Andrew Sullivan] informed viewers of “The Chris Matthews Show.”
“More dog collars, more piling up?” Chris Matthews pressed.
“No. Rapes,” Mr. Sullivan said.
“On camera?” asked the host.
“On camera,” the editor said.
We’ve been warned.
That was the buzz when these pics came to the attention of congress. As much as I want to see Bush damaged beyond salvation, I have grave reservations about the release of this material.
On one hand, you can’t solve a problem without getting to the truth of it. On the other, if these images are as awful as has been implied, it could seriously damage our country for years to come.
If these do get published, we must keep a laser focus on the reality of the problem and not the politics. That said, if someone tries to blame the ACLU or the media for damaging America, they need to be quickly hit on the head with a chair.
I hope they release the photos of Granger and Lyndie having sex.
because that must have been under orders, too, right?
The damage to our country has already been done by the committing of these acts. Releasing pictures of them won’t make them any more real. They are already real. People just don’t want to accept them.
We won’t reverse the downward course we are on until we acknowledge that we are on a downward course.
While I share JoeW’s trepidation and sense of dread, I have to argue– vehemently– with an assumption present in his comment.
The release of pictures of these crimes is *not* dangerous to America and to our reputation. The COMMISSION of these crimes is dangerous to America and to our reputation. And that damage is already done. The people responsible– Alberto Gonzales, Gen. Miller, Gen. Sanchez, and Donald Rumsfeld– should be court-martialed and executed for treason.
Please, if a rape happens in the forest, and nobody sees the pictures, did it really happen? Of course it fucking did. Especially if it happened to *you*.
This country is sinking into a very stupid kind of solipsism, where bullshit is reality and appearance is more significant than substance. Please stop it. The *reporting* of atrocities isn’t evil. *Perperating* them is evil. *Reporting* them is a sacred duty in a democracy with an open government.
Besides, these things have already been reported, at length, by human rights organisations, Seymour Hersh, the Taguba report, and the international press. But, being such a bunch of image-conscious television-watchers, we don’t know about it because they were reported as *words*. Only pictures are real to a nation of Hollywood fantasy-dwellers. We have got to change that.
More importantly, just as with any other kind of rape or abuse, it is the secrets and the lies that kill. Silence = death. Get this stuff out in the open. Please. Yes, it’ll hurt us to see (because “seeing is believing”) what the rest of the world already knows to be true– because they know how to read. But it’s about time; it’s already hurt so many others– including us, though we may not yet realise how much.
Hiding these pictures is also futile. Most of Iraq is tribal, where everyone is related to everyone else. People talk to one another. They don’t drop their kids off at daycare, go to work separately, then drive home alone in their SUV’s to sit alone in their suburban tract-mansions with their nuclear family and know nothing about what goes on in the world except what they see 1/2 hour’s worth of FOX “news”. That’s an American phenomenon. Word gets around, over there.
In most of the world (including Iraq), people gather in large groups, have large, super-extended families, and talk to one another all the time; even moreso now that unemployment is so high– there’s not much else to do. Picture an enormous blogosphere– but with real people in real face-to-face conversations. I’ll bet that all of Iraq knew about Abu Ghraib as soon as a few of its victims got released (early 2004, IIRC… right about the time of the Falluja uprising, interestingly).
I’ll also point out that Mediterranean, Middle-Eastern, Latin American, and most other cultures are *not* a very visual; verbal and written reports are as real to them as pictures are to us. Islam even specifically forbids pictures and paintings and art (and photographs? dunno.) as “graven images”, so you can imagine that the damage was done long before any pictures showed up.
Finally, I’ll point out the tremendous inconsistency here: supposedly the *report* of Korans being flushed down the toilet caused militants in Afghanistan to explode in outrage– no pictures; apparently they know how to read, and how to listen to and process words– unlike us who need to see a fucking picture or infographic. Well, everyone there has already read and heard the reports of atrocities at Abu Ghraib. Releasing the pictures won’t outrage them anymore than they already are. But! Releasing the pictures *will* outrage Americans– specifically, American VOTERS. And if there’s any reason why the pictures have been hidden, I’ll bet that is it. And if that’s true, this should have been the October Surprise, dammit.
BTW, supposedly there is video too. Rummy has never heard of a camcorder or DV, either, apparently.
Pubulis? I don’t disagree with a word you’ve said. The crime is in the act, not the reporting. But I am afraid of what will result from the focus this brings to what has happened. I’m also afraid that the only way to change the culture of abuse is to expose it. I wish there was another way to deal with it.
It will mark a very dark period of our national history. There will be hell to pay, and it’s us who will be paying it. So while I do have grave reservations about the release of this material, I also see no way around it.
I also think it is too important to allow partisan politics to shape how it is dealt with. If this material is as bad as we’re being led to believe, we need to focus on the crimes. I’m not nearly so outraged that Bush/Rummy/Cheney did this as I am that my government did this. This is a stain on all of us that will outlast the people responsible for it. Do not take this as a free pass for the Bush admin – there should be no tolerance for people who will blame the media, or brainlessly try to rationalize things to the admin’s favor.
The only acceptable response will be a full and honest accounting – and let the politics/blame fall where it may. It’s too serious to treat any other way.
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