The pictures of tortures that hit the news, as bad as they are, do not reflect the depth and extent of the crimes perpetrated against the Iraqi prisoners. Rumsfeld himself admitted that. Torture against Iraqi detainees should simply be viewed as a continuation of the destruction of Iraqi society, murders, and crimes against Iraqi people. These pictures are not any worse than the pictures that show children’s body parts blown apart. What sets these pictures apart from other scenes of brutality is that they reveal to us a purposeful brutality being perpetrated by US functionaries. If murder of innocent civilians during the war and military confrontations can be portrayed as an accident, the torture of prisoners cannot.
Torture and Brutality, America’s New World Order
By Mahmood Ketabchi
mekchi@msn.com
May 14, 2004
After failing to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or identifying any connection between Saddam Hussein’s regime and al Qaeda, the US government tried to justify its bloody war on the people of Iraq by asserting that it freed Iraqi people from a brutal and fascist regime. They claimed that the world had become safer without the Baath regime and that the US would build the first democracy in the Arab world as a symbol and role model for other countries in the region.
The Bush administration said they wanted to get rid of WMD in Iraq. Yet none were found. The only WMD in Iraq today is the US army and its massive and murderous military apparatus. They told us that they intended to fight terrorism and Al Queda, yet no relation between the Baath regime and al Qaeda could be proven. However, today, Iraq has become a bastion of Islamic terrorism of all sorts, home grown and foreign. They boasted that they got rid of a brutal and murderous regime, but they have replaced it with a brutal and murderous occupation regime. They grouped together ethnocentric gangs, Islamic criminals, and reactionary forces to form the “Iraqi Governing Council” and various ministries. This hand-picked assembly of criminals, which takes its orders from the US, is what they’re calling “democracy.” They took over Saddam Hussein’s torture chambers and turned them into US torture chambers.
To begin with, this bloody war was never about destruction of WMD, fighting Islamic terrorism, or bringing freedom to Iraq. The US has been a home to weapons of mass destruction. Its policies became a breeding ground for Islamic terrorism. Suppressing freedom, fighting communism and supporting fascists and dictators around the world were always the cornerstone of US existence.
Finally, the US warmongers clung to the justification that they are bringing liberation to the long-suffering people of Iraq. But now this final justification has also blown up in their face. The torture of Iraqi prisoners not only proved once more to the world the demagogy of the US government, but also it has dragged Bush and his administration deeper into mud and faced it with ever more increasing quagmire. “The land of the brave and the free,” the “leader of the free world,” “America the beautiful” and “the epitome of democracy and freedom” now stands on trial in the world public opinion as symbol of torture, sadism, and brutality.
Rush Limbaugh, who compared the torture of Iraqi prisoners with rituals in fraternities, is an aberration. No matter what, there will always be sick and disgusting people who find a way to defend criminal and sadistic acts and behaviors, as there are still people who see Hitler as a man with a mission to cleanse the world of “filthy” Jews, communists, and pinkos.
The pictures of tortures that hit the news, as bad as they are, do not reflect the depth and extent of the crimes perpetrated against the Iraqi prisoners. Rumsfeld himself admitted that. Torture against Iraqi detainees should simply be viewed as a continuation of the destruction of Iraqi society, murders, and crimes against Iraqi people. These pictures are not any worse than the pictures that show children’s body parts blown apart. What sets these pictures apart from other scenes of brutality is that they reveal to us a purposeful brutality being perpetrated by US functionaries. If murder of innocent civilians during the war and military confrontations can be portrayed as an accident, the torture of prisoners cannot.
The torture scenes show the true and naked character of US state terrorism and the New World Order espoused by Bush and other warmongers. The pictures are not just a condemnation of Bush and his cronies, but also of all the war supporters who applauded “our troops” for their “bravery and selfless service to the country.” Many of the same media pundits, embedded reporters, and bootlicking journalists who tried to sell the war to the American public as inevitable and necessary are now talking and writing about torture, sadism, and sexual humiliation in Abu Ghoraib prison. Their news stories are decorated with revolting picture of torture. The media in conjunction with the US ruling class presents the torture in the US operated detention centers as “shocking” and an “aberration” to the principles of “humanity” and “decency” that the US military apparatus supposedly stands for.
Torture committed against Iraqi detaneeis is not an aberration; it is an indispensable part of an army of “shock and awe” as Rumsfeld once characterized the US military operation in Iraq. An army with bigoted and racist attitudes against Arabs and Middle Eastern people is bound to treat its victims with brutality and cruelty. An army which destroys schools, hospitals, water supply units, electric grids, which besieges cities hoping to starve people into submission, and which indiscriminately kills and mimes civilians, most of whom are children, women and elderly, is no different than the army which tortures detainees in the prisons. An army that is taught to “win battles not hearts and minds” is bound to act with cruelty, recklessness, and callousness. It is sheer hypocrisy and selective morality to shed crocodile tears when it comes to torture scenes and yet support and stay silent about the untold misery and crimes the US government inflicted on the whole of Iraqi society.
The Bush administration and the US government are directly responsible for the crimes committed against Iraqi prisoners. The torturers, with clear orders coming from top US civilian, military and intelligence officials, were put in charge of breaking prisoners and extracting information from them. In his testimony in the Senate committee, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that pentagon lawyers approved methods such as sleep deprivation, dietary changes and making prisoners assume stress positions. As one can guess, “dietary change” is a euphemism for starving prisoners, but how much and for how long would you starve them? What he did not say is how do you keep prisoners awake? It’s definitely not by chatting with them or playing some sort of nice music for them. It happens through threat and/or implementation of harsher treatments. What are those “stress positions?” How do you make a prisoner assume a “stress position?” It’s done through harsher and more brutal violence, period. Just Imagine you keep prisoners in complete isolation, you starve them, deprive them of sleep, and force them into excruciating positions. If that is not torture, what is it then? What if the prisoner puts up a resistance? What if those methods approved by pentagon lawyers do not break the prisoners? Then what? Rumsfeld is lying; he is not telling the whole truth. As the pressure grows to combat anti-American forces, using torture, callous treatment, and sadistic acts to extract information from detainees, not only becomes a norm, but also gets harsher and more widespread.
Bush and other US officials have no option but to condemn the brutal acts of torture; after all, the US government is the self-appointed leader of the “free world.” They say that the torture committed against the Iraqi prisoners is “appalling and disgraceful.” Indeed it is. But they are lying when they try to scapegoat a handful of sadistic soldiers whom they put in charge in the US torture chambers. What happened in prison is more than what a bunch of “bad apples” could do. We are not talking about some zealot “inexperienced” prison guards getting out of line. We are facing an ongoing, organized, widespread, and systematic act to make the prison “hell” for the detainees. Indeed, reports of torture from independent humanitarian organizations were available to the US government many months ago. Even internal investigations by the Pentagon pointed to systematic maltreatments and criminal acts against Iraqi prisoners.
Now that the scenes of torture have hit the news stands and images of brutal acts were broadcast around the world, the US government has to save its credibility by announcing that it is going to investigate the brutality and bring to justice those who committed the crime. But we know what is going to happen. The knife will never cut off its own handle. Neither Republicans nor Democrats have any interest in getting to the bottom of the atrocities in the US torture chambers. They will act as if they are appalled so that they appear sensible and humane. This is only to show the world what a “great government” we have in America. Democrats will shout and scream, but it is only to get some electoral publicity and extract some concessions from their Republican counterparts. There will be no justice done, but there will be plenty of cover up. We will never learn the truth about the extent of the torture that the US government ordered against the Iraqi prisoners. We will never find out who were the people responsible for the crimes. At best, some low level flunkies will be sacrificed and punished. The real criminals, in higher positions, will escape unpunished or will even be praised for their “great contributions” to the country and the world.
The US government should be held accountable for the atrocities and the crimes it is perpetrating against the people of Iraq and, in this case, Iraqi prisoners. Progressive humanity and freedom loving people around the world must not only condemn the brutal act of torture and maltreatment practiced by the US functionaries in Iraqi prisons, but also demand an independent investigation by an international body. The US government must be tried in international courts for its crimes against humanity.
There must be a full and thorough investigation of the torture of Iraqi prisoners. All aspects of the torture and atrocities, as sickening as they are, must be fully disclosed. Those who committed the crimes, ordered, and designed them should be fully exposed and made known to the public. All US detention centers should be open to human rights and humanitarian originations. All torture chambers operated by the US government must be closed down. All detainees should be freed, not only because the US has no business to be Iraq, but also because their human rights have been violated by the US government. There must be a full, independent, and open investigation of the CIA and Pentagon’s interrogation and torture procedures. Victims of brutality and torture should be compensated for the crimes that have been committed against them. Finally, the occupation of Iraq must end, and the US government must withdraw its forces from Iraq unconditionally and immediately.
Civilized humanity must come forward. It is only the egalitarian and freedom loving people who can stop the brutality and insanity of the New World Order that the US government is imposing on the world. If the perpetrators of these crimes are not brought to justice and fully exposed to the world, the atrocities and horrendous acts we have witnessed will continue and become a tolerable norm. We will face a bleak and barbaric future. The “free world” and the “democracy” promised to us by the US government is what we have seen happening in Iraq. Let’s look at those pictures again and as a US senator admitted “take the worse case and multiply it several times over.” If that is not enough reason to stop the US government, then there will never be one.
By Mahmood Ketabchi
mekchi@msn.com May 14, 2004
After failing to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or identifying any connection between Saddam Hussein’s regime and al Qaeda, the US government tried to justify its bloody war on the people of Iraq by asserting that it freed Iraqi people from a brutal and fascist regime. They claimed that the world had become safer without the Baath regime and that the US would build the first democracy in the Arab world as a symbol and role model for other countries in the region.
The Bush administration said they wanted to get rid of WMD in Iraq. Yet none were found. The only WMD in Iraq today is the US army and its massive and murderous military apparatus. They told us that they intended to fight terrorism and Al Queda, yet no relation between the Baath regime and al Qaeda could be proven. However, today, Iraq has become a bastion of Islamic terrorism of all sorts, home grown and foreign. They boasted that they got rid of a brutal and murderous regime, but they have replaced it with a brutal and murderous occupation regime. They grouped together ethnocentric gangs, Islamic criminals, and reactionary forces to form the “Iraqi Governing Council” and various ministries. This hand-picked assembly of criminals, which takes its orders from the US, is what they’re calling “democracy.” They took over Saddam Hussein’s torture chambers and turned them into US torture chambers.
To begin with, this bloody war was never about destruction of WMD, fighting Islamic terrorism, or bringing freedom to Iraq. The US has been a home to weapons of mass destruction. Its policies became a breeding ground for Islamic terrorism. Suppressing freedom, fighting communism and supporting fascists and dictators around the world were always the cornerstone of US existence.
Finally, the US warmongers clung to the justification that they are bringing liberation to the long-suffering people of Iraq. But now this final justification has also blown up in their face. The torture of Iraqi prisoners not only proved once more to the world the demagogy of the US government, but also it has dragged Bush and his administration deeper into mud and faced it with ever more increasing quagmire. “The land of the brave and the free,” the “leader of the free world,” “America the beautiful” and “the epitome of democracy and freedom” now stands on trial in the world public opinion as symbol of torture, sadism, and brutality.
Rush Limbaugh, who compared the torture of Iraqi prisoners with rituals in fraternities, is an aberration. No matter what, there will always be sick and disgusting people who find a way to defend criminal and sadistic acts and behaviors, as there are still people who see Hitler as a man with a mission to cleanse the world of “filthy” Jews, communists, and pinkos.
The pictures of tortures that hit the news, as bad as they are, do not reflect the depth and extent of the crimes perpetrated against the Iraqi prisoners. Rumsfeld himself admitted that. Torture against Iraqi detainees should simply be viewed as a continuation of the destruction of Iraqi society, murders, and crimes against Iraqi people. These pictures are not any worse than the pictures that show children’s body parts blown apart. What sets these pictures apart from other scenes of brutality is that they reveal to us a purposeful brutality being perpetrated by US functionaries. If murder of innocent civilians during the war and military confrontations can be portrayed as an accident, the torture of prisoners cannot.
The torture scenes show the true and naked character of US state terrorism and the New World Order espoused by Bush and other warmongers. The pictures are not just a condemnation of Bush and his cronies, but also of all the war supporters who applauded “our troops” for their “bravery and selfless service to the country.” Many of the same media pundits, embedded reporters, and bootlicking journalists who tried to sell the war to the American public as inevitable and necessary are now talking and writing about torture, sadism, and sexual humiliation in Abu Ghoraib prison. Their news stories are decorated with revolting picture of torture. The media in conjunction with the US ruling class presents the torture in the US operated detention centers as “shocking” and an “aberration” to the principles of “humanity” and “decency” that the US military apparatus supposedly stands for.
Torture committed against Iraqi detaneeis is not an aberration; it is an indispensable part of an army of “shock and awe” as Rumsfeld once characterized the US military operation in Iraq. An army with bigoted and racist attitudes against Arabs and Middle Eastern people is bound to treat its victims with brutality and cruelty. An army which destroys schools, hospitals, water supply units, electric grids, which besieges cities hoping to starve people into submission, and which indiscriminately kills and mimes civilians, most of whom are children, women and elderly, is no different than the army which tortures detainees in the prisons. An army that is taught to “win battles not hearts and minds” is bound to act with cruelty, recklessness, and callousness. It is sheer hypocrisy and selective morality to shed crocodile tears when it comes to torture scenes and yet support and stay silent about the untold misery and crimes the US government inflicted on the whole of Iraqi society.
The Bush administration and the US government are directly responsible for the crimes committed against Iraqi prisoners. The torturers, with clear orders coming from top US civilian, military and intelligence officials, were put in charge of breaking prisoners and extracting information from them. In his testimony in the Senate committee, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that pentagon lawyers approved methods such as sleep deprivation, dietary changes and making prisoners assume stress positions. As one can guess, “dietary change” is a euphemism for starving prisoners, but how much and for how long would you starve them? What he did not say is how do you keep prisoners awake? It’s definitely not by chatting with them or playing some sort of nice music for them. It happens through threat and/or implementation of harsher treatments. What are those “stress positions?” How do you make a prisoner assume a “stress position?” It’s done through harsher and more brutal violence, period. Just Imagine you keep prisoners in complete isolation, you starve them, deprive them of sleep, and force them into excruciating positions. If that is not torture, what is it then? What if the prisoner puts up a resistance? What if those methods approved by pentagon lawyers do not break the prisoners? Then what? Rumsfeld is lying; he is not telling the whole truth. As the pressure grows to combat anti-American forces, using torture, callous treatment, and sadistic acts to extract information from detainees, not only becomes a norm, but also gets harsher and more widespread.
Bush and other US officials have no option but to condemn the brutal acts of torture; after all, the US government is the self-appointed leader of the “free world.” They say that the torture committed against the Iraqi prisoners is “appalling and disgraceful.” Indeed it is. But they are lying when they try to scapegoat a handful of sadistic soldiers whom they put in charge in the US torture chambers. What happened in prison is more than what a bunch of “bad apples” could do. We are not talking about some zealot “inexperienced” prison guards getting out of line. We are facing an ongoing, organized, widespread, and systematic act to make the prison “hell” for the detainees. Indeed, reports of torture from independent humanitarian organizations were available to the US government many months ago. Even internal investigations by the Pentagon pointed to systematic maltreatments and criminal acts against Iraqi prisoners.
Now that the scenes of torture have hit the news stands and images of brutal acts were broadcast around the world, the US government has to save its credibility by announcing that it is going to investigate the brutality and bring to justice those who committed the crime. But we know what is going to happen. The knife will never cut off its own handle. Neither Republicans nor Democrats have any interest in getting to the bottom of the atrocities in the US torture chambers. They will act as if they are appalled so that they appear sensible and humane. This is only to show the world what a “great government” we have in America. Democrats will shout and scream, but it is only to get some electoral publicity and extract some concessions from their Republican counterparts. There will be no justice done, but there will be plenty of cover up. We will never learn the truth about the extent of the torture that the US government ordered against the Iraqi prisoners. We will never find out who were the people responsible for the crimes. At best, some low level flunkies will be sacrificed and punished. The real criminals, in higher positions, will escape unpunished or will even be praised for their “great contributions” to the country and the world.
The US government should be held accountable for the atrocities and the crimes it is perpetrating against the people of Iraq and, in this case, Iraqi prisoners. Progressive humanity and freedom loving people around the world must not only condemn the brutal act of torture and maltreatment practiced by the US functionaries in Iraqi prisons, but also demand an independent investigation by an international body. The US government must be tried in international courts for its crimes against humanity.
There must be a full and thorough investigation of the torture of Iraqi prisoners. All aspects of the torture and atrocities, as sickening as they are, must be fully disclosed. Those who committed the crimes, ordered, and designed them should be fully exposed and made known to the public. All US detention centers should be open to human rights and humanitarian originations. All torture chambers operated by the US government must be closed down. All detainees should be freed, not only because the US has no business to be Iraq, but also because their human rights have been violated by the US government. There must be a full, independent, and open investigation of the CIA and Pentagon’s interrogation and torture procedures. Victims of brutality and torture should be compensated for the crimes that have been committed against them. Finally, the occupation of Iraq must end, and the US government must withdraw its forces from Iraq unconditionally and immediately.
Civilized humanity must come forward. It is only the egalitarian and freedom loving people who can stop the brutality and insanity of the New World Order that the US government is imposing on the world. If the perpetrators of these crimes are not brought to justice and fully exposed to the world, the atrocities and horrendous acts we have witnessed will continue and become a tolerable norm. We will face a bleak and barbaric future. The “free world” and the “democracy” promised to us by the US government is what we have seen happening in Iraq. Let’s look at those pictures again and as a US senator admitted “take the worse case and multiply it several times over.” If that is not enough reason to stop the US government, then there will never be one.
