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Volume 27, Issue 5, September 9, 2004

Opinion

Take a stand: outrage or shame

mug
Bryan Goodland
Columnist

War is an uncomfortable reality in today’s world. What happens in a war zone is often something we as a civilized nation would like to believe never occurs. But, unfortunately, it does. Take for instance the recent atrocities perpetrated on the prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.

After all the photos and names the press has flung at us, it is easy to see that what happened at the prison was far from acceptable. Prisoners were beaten, psychologically tortured, and were forced to pose naked for photographs, as service men and women looked on.

Needless to say, this type of thing would be humiliating for anyone, but in the Islamic world it is especially degrading. These were not just random pranks that went on in the prison, but pointed and often sadistic measures used to make the prisoners talk.

The soldiers who perpetrated these actions are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and have the potential to be formally charged with crimes. Statements coming out from some of the alleged perpetrators claim they were only following orders.

This type of defense brings into question another dim reality of today’s military machine. Do we really want to train a bunch of automatons who blindly follow whatever order is given them? Plus, keep in mind that even the military reasons an order followed must be one in which an average person would consider reasonable.

Would the average person think the beating, humiliation, and torture of prisoners was reasonable?

The military is of course trying to divert the media’s attention and saying the CIA was involved at the prison and were using interrogation methods to get the prisoners to reveal information about upcoming attacks. This seems like a reasonable explanation, if torture and humiliation seem to be reasonable practices.

However, the problem is that some of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib were civilians picked up in random military sweeps.

Whether civilians or soldiers were tortured remains unclear, but either way the entire episode is reprehensible.

Janis Kerpinski, a brigadier general in the Army Reserve, was in charge of three prisons—Abu Ghraib being one of them—during the occupation. She was involved in intelligence and operations in the Gulf War, but had no training in handling prisoners. Why would the military choose her to lead a prison system in a very volatile area?

Her lack of strong leadership may have contributed to many of the problems, but the blame can’t lie only with her. America must hold its soldiers to a higher standard and ensure that when we are involved in an action overseas our military is an example for all.

The tragedy of Abu Ghraib is the simple fact that in an area that at best, tolerated our presence and at worst plotted our demise, is now left with ammunition for its hatred. We will never be able to make strides toward stabilizing the Middle East if we continually make further enemies of the people who live there.

War is a terrible thing, and what happens in a war zone is often uncontrollable, but what happens in a military prison shouldn’t be.
Strong leadership and an overlying moral obligation has to be inculcated into those who are watching over POWs so torture and chaos don’t run rampant. As Americans, we should be outraged; and we should hope that those found guilty are brought to justice. If not, we should all hang our heads in shame.