Sunday, May 09, 2004

Lord of the Flies

I might learn to hate.

On the day the Pentagon announced the first court martial of one of the seven US military police personnel so far charged in the scandal, The New Yorker magazine published a photograph of a naked prisoner cowering in terror in front of a pair of German shepherd dogs held on leashes by their handlers, who are in full combat gear.

The author of the article, Seymour Hersh, says they are part of a series that shows the dogs snarling at the Iraqi and straining at their leashes, and then the same prisoner with at least one wound and his leg covered in blood, apparently the result of a bite.

But even these chilling pictures may not be the end. The Pentagon now has other photos and videos in its possession, showing acts of rape and the desecration of a dead body, which it plans to show to various Congressmen shortly. That alone makes it likely they will become public knowledge.
  article

The New Yorker picture is here if you haven't seen it and think you want to.

Top investigative reporter Seymour Hersh said he had obtained the pictures of the now notorious Abu Ghraib prison which had been in the possession of a member of the 320th Military Police Battalion.

The published picture shows a naked Iraqi man leaning against a cell door with his hands clasped behind his neck, cowering in fear as two German Shepherd dogs bark at him.

Hersh said that other photos showed the dogs "straining at their leashes and snarling at the prisoner".

"In another take a few minutes later, the Iraqi is lying on the ground, writhing in pain, with a soldier sitting on top of him, knee pressed to his back. Blood is streaming from the inmate's leg," Hersh said in his article.


For some reason the picture of the goons with their dogs surrounding an obviously terrified and naked Iraqi prisoner with his hands behind his head but trying to crouch in some pathetic attempt at self-protection, make me sicker and colder than any of those other pictures we've seen to date. I don't think I'll be able to look at any of rape and desecration.

Some times I hate people. Times like these.

Of course I don't know anything about this man's reason for being a prisoner - it could be anything from simply being there when some soldiers went on a round-up to murder to child molestation. I don't know, but I cannot view the picture without feeling sympathy and sickness on the man's behalf, and a cold hardening of any feeling for the goon squad who would pretend to be human. I can only imagine what Arab Muslims must be experiencing when they see these pictures.

And why do the reports keep saying that investigators report an incidence of a male MP guard having sex with a female prisoner? Having sex with a female prisoner? Do they honestly imagine it might have been consentual?

Power doesn't corrupt - it attracts the corruptable. (Frank Herbert)

I don't care what wonderful, marvelous things people may have done or created, they cannot make up for the heinous things.

The human experiment is a failure.

And by the way - this is a different unit from the one with Miss Lynndie.

A few more bad apples.

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