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 | | From: | morrisseybreen at yahoo.com | | Subject: | America and Britain a true coaliton of the shameful | | Date: | 23 Jan 2005 02:13:18 -0800 |
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 | Abuse of prisoners: Hearts, minds and shameful pictures
Jan 20th 2005
>From The Economist print edition
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3D3577203
It is not enough just to punish the immediate perpetrators of military
abuses
PICTURES, as has been known for thousands of years, can possess a power
that mere words struggle to match. That was why, despite months of
rumbling complaints from human-rights organisations, it took the
photographs of abuse of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail to send
people's blood boiling about the behaviour of American troops and, by
extension, about what was going on in Guant=E1namo Bay. That is also why
the appalling photographs that were released this week by a British
court-martial sent the blood to boiling point-even though the
offences by British soldiers near Basra had also been known about for
some time. The worldwide distribution of such images at least makes
America and Britain a true coalition of the shameful. Yet the allies
are together in another way too. Both are evading proper accountability
for what has occurred.
Nevertheless, America and Britain do also share a common line of
defence. It is that soldiers are trained to use violence, and that when
they are sent into action a few abuses will always occur. Such things
have happened in every war, from Vietnam to Iraq, from the Balkans to
the UN peacekeeping operation in Congo, and they happen with domestic
policing too, whether in Northern Ireland or Los Angeles. What matters
is how they are then dealt with. As Colin Powell, the outgoing American
secretary of state, said after Abu Ghraib: "Watch how America will do
the right thing."
If you think the "right thing" is to find and punish those directly
involved with the abuse, then that is indeed what America has done. The
conviction and sentencing on January 15th of Specialist Charles Graner,
said to be the ringleader for the Abu Ghraib abuses, represented just
that (see article). That is also what Britain is doing: the
court-martials at a British base in Germany from which this week's
pictures emanated are still under way, but their aim is the same (see
article). Like his American equivalents before him, General Sir Mike
Jackson, head of the British army, made a noble public statement
condemning the abuses shown in the photos, but saying that they were
not typical of his troops, whether in Iraq or elsewhere.
Right, but not enough
Yet, although such investigation and punishment is necessary, it is far
from sufficient. It is insufficient on two grounds. One is the need to
ensure that the danger of such abuses being repeated is minimised by
eliminating any systemic weaknesses of discipline or command. The other
is the need to counter the reputational and political damage the abuses
have caused. So far, the American and British governments have failed
on both of those counts.
In one sense, America has handled the fallout from the abuses better
than Britain. It at least responded by setting up an investigation into
what lay behind them, the results of which were made public. Britain
has not, relying on the typically British tactic of saying, in effect,
"trust us, we're decent fellows and we won't let it happen again."
Given that the abuses show precisely that some soldiers are not decent
fellows, and given that in the court-martial it has been disclosed that
the abusers' quarter master gave an order capable of being interpreted
as a licence for violence, such a reaction is not good enough. An
inquiry, with publicly disclosed evidence and results, should have been
set up long ago-and should still be.
If America dealt with its problem more openly, however, it has
compounded the damage to its reputation. In essence, it ignored the
findings of the Abu Ghraib enquiry conducted by Major-General Antonio
Taguba, in which he spoke of "systemic" problems at Abu Ghraib,
since punishment was not imposed far up the chain of command. It has
also sought to ignore consistent evidence that torture has been used in
Guant=E1namo and to avoid confronting the unjust legal limbo in which
prisoners there have been kept for almost three years. And the man who
commissioned memos justifying torture, Alberto Gonzales, has been
punished by being nominated by George Bush as his new attorney-general.
He is likely to be confirmed even with the support of so-called
Democrats. They don't appear to care about his association with
torture. They support him simply on the grounds that he is a Latino.
The worst sin, though, is the one that goes right to the top. Neither
Mr Bush nor Tony Blair is willing to accept blame for what has
occurred, nor to demand accountability for it from their cabinets. That
is to imply that, for all their condemnations of the abuses, they think
them politically unimportant. At least in international politics, they
are wrong.
Copyright =A9 2005 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All
rights reserved.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3D3577203
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| | From: | Komin | | Subject: | Re: America and Britain a true coaliton of the shameful | | Date: | 23 Jan 2005 04:52:26 -0800 |
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| J. Howard is an American sniffing dog inside Asia .
J. Howard works for the CIA .
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| | From: | TheMan | | Subject: | Re: America and Britain a true coaliton of the shameful | | Date: | Mon, 24 Jan 2005 17:00:51 +1000 |
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wrote in message
news:1106470749.879364.250040@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
Abuse of prisoners: Hearts, minds and shameful pictures
Jan 20th 2005
>From The Economist print edition
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3577203
It is not enough just to punish the immediate perpetrators of military
abuses
PICTURES, as has been known for thousands of years, can possess a power
that mere words struggle to match. That was why, despite months of
rumbling complaints from human-rights organisations, it took the
photographs of abuse of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail to send
people's blood boiling about the behaviour of American troops and, by
extension, about what was going on in Guantánamo Bay. That is also why
the appalling photographs that were released this week by a British
court-martial sent the blood to boiling point-even though the
offences by British soldiers near Basra had also been known about for
some time.
-----------------------------------------------------
To the British defence I doubt the government authorised such abuse and was
the actions of rogue soilders.
The Yanks on the other hand we know deal in this type of industry(torture)
and we have documents for the authorisation of the torture running all the
way up to the Torturer in Charge Donald Rumsfeld.
The Australian PM knowing what the USA does to it's prisoners made them sign
an agreement before the war that any prisoners caught by the Australian Army
and handed over to the USA were NOT to be tortured. Whether the Yanks lived
up to their side of the bargain is yet to be seen.
-TheMan-
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