(remembering March 20th, 2003)
Our president launched this war with the promise to the Iraqi people of “no more torture chambers and rape rooms. The tyrant will soon be gone.”
Robert Scheer: When We’re the Evildoers in Iraq
Now at least a few U.S. troops and private contractors have been abusing prisoners there, and the symbolism has not been lost on people throughout Iraq–and throughout the Arab and Muslim world.
Some of these photos first appeared on “60 Minutes II” on April 28. Seymour Hersh in the latest issue of The New Yorker elaborates on them. Hersh got a hold of an internal Army investigative report written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba, who cited “sadistic, blatant, and wanton abuses.” Here are some of Taguba’s descriptions of the abuse, as quoted by Hersh: “Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.”
The report also describes several instances of sexual humiliation. One picture, which was widely shown on television though the details were obscured, was of a female soldier “giving a jaunty thumbs-up sign and pointing at the genitals of young Iraqi, who is naked except for a sandbag over his head, as he masturbates.” Other testimony indicated that U.S. soldiers made some of the male Iraqi prisoners simulate oral sex.
Editor Matthew Rothschild comments on the news of the day
The current controversy “is an exception,” [Rumsfeld] said. “The pattern and practice of the Saddam Hussein regime was . . . to murder and torture, and the killing fields are filled with mass graves. And equating the two, I think, is a fundamental misunderstanding of what took place.”
Fred Barbash and Lexie Verdon Rumsfeld Calls Prisoner Abuse ‘Deeply Disturbing’
The U.S. military has investigated the deaths of 25 prisoners held by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and determined that two prisoners were murdered by Americans, one an Army soldier and the other a CIA contractor, Army officials said on Tuesday.
U.S. Probe: Two War Prisoners Murdered by Americans
U.S. Marines fired a rocket and dropped a 500lb laser-guided bomb on a mosque compound in the Sunni Moslem city of Fallujah today, killing up to 40 people, according to witnesses.
US Marines Bomb Mosque Compound in Battle with Militants
“I don’t agree that you need an enormous number of American troops.
Saddam’s army is down to one-third than it was before, and I think it
would be a cakewalk.” – Kenneth Adelman, Defense Policy Board, to Wolf
Blitzer on CNN, 12-06-01
“The fact of the matter is that this (increased American casualties) is
a sign of the success of our operation, not its failure.” – Ralph Reed,
GOP strategist, on MSNBC’s program ‘Hardball,’ 10-28-03
“There are some who feel that, you know, the conditions are such that
they can attack us there. My answer is, bring ’em on. We have the force
necessary to deal with the situation.” – George W. Bush, Chicago
Tribune, 07-03-03
“Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the President to
explain to us what the exit strategy is.” – George W. Bush, discussing
Kosovo, Houston Chronicle, 04-09-99
“I’m the commander – see, I don’t need to explain – I don’t need to
explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being the
President. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something,
but I don’t feel like I owe anybody an explanation.” – George W. Bush,
Washington Post, 11-19-02
“Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what day
it’s gonna happen? It’s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful
mind on something like that?” – Barbara Bush, said on ‘Good Morning
America’ the day before the Iraq War started, New York Times, 01-13-03
Sometimes you dont need to say anything to prove a point.
Wilbur
I don’t even need to explain… Ahhh, it’s not torture, it’s abuse. Which is much much different, especially if you’re not a lawyer. My friend Justine thinks Rumsfeld doesn’t recognize the broomstick sodomizing as “rape” because he pays for that kind of stuff on the weekends. We are a nation run by fucknuts.
By the way, do you listen to Air American Radio? You should.