Once again, President Bush's Administration misses the
point in the Iraqi Prison Scandal.
President Bush seems to think that finally
apologizing for the abuses in Abu Ghraib prison and
publicly trying the soldiers involved will help clean
up this public relations mess that has been created by
his inattention to some very important aspects of our
invasion of Iraq; Such as, our abilities as caretakers
once the former social and political structure was
demolished. It will not work. His efforts are too
little too late and the one positive action he could
take to illustrate our revulsion for the abuse that
took place under our stewardship he hasn't even
publicly considered. Every investigation that is
performed internally needs to be duplicated on a
higher level by a United Nations appointed team of
investigators. Once there is sufficient evidence to
warrant the equivalent of an indictment all parties
accused of wrongdoing need to be tried by a U.N. war
crimes tribunal.
President Bush's apology, which came several days
after the pictures were made public, lacks any true
substance. Actions have always spoken louder than
words and his actions are nonchalantly shrugging off
the blatant violation of human rights that is
occurring on his watch. His numerous “apologies” and
promises of justice being mete out to the “few”
offenders involved are ludicrous. The list of possible
punishments that was given out in news articles, that
Jeremy Sivits could face if convicted was unbelievable
in its lenience. Sivits could be jailed for a year or
less, demoted or discharged from the army, legal
experts said. This is a man that took some part in the
degradation, humiliation, and physical abuse of people
that had been deprived of their liberty without
recourse to a stable judicial system with the
appropriate safe guards in place. A man whose behavior
and actions we as a nation are responsible for. Drug
dealers in this country get stiffer sentencing if
convicted. The message this sends to the world? As
long as you're an American and your victim isn't you
get a slap on the wrist and sent home with the
admonishment to “play nice” next time.
President Bush has repeatedly told the nation that
as many troops as are needed in Iraq he will send. Now
we've come to find out that one of the many problems
identified during the investigation is that we didn't
have the numbers to run the jail properly, and that of
the ones that were in place few were trained as prison
guards, nor were they receiving any “on the job”
training by qualified professionals. Was President
Bush honestly unaware of this recipe for disaster?
The Presidents assertions that he knew nothing of
the ongoing investigations into detainee abuses within
the prison system also raise some very disturbing
questions. The ICRC (International Red Cross), which
is the official organization for monitoring the well
being of POW's world wide, have stated that months
before the military began any investigations they had
filed reports detailing the violations. These reports
were given not only to the officials in Iraq but also
to highly placed members of President Bush's
administration. Now the question is did those very
same staff members withhold vital information from our
President? Are these people only telling him what he
wants to hear and nothing more? Or did he know and
simply not care? Either possibility is horrifying,
for on the one hand he is a clueless, witless,
Neanderthal in charge of one of the most powerful
nations in the world, while the other possibility
signifies an evil too grotesque to contemplate.
As the investigation has progressed more and more
information has been released that paints a grim
picture of widespread abuse that reaches much farther
than the Middle East and going far beyond a few
miss-trained “un-American” G.I.'s. Stories are
surfacing of abuses in Guantanamo Bay, as Mr. Rumsfeld
dances around questions regarding what our
interrogation procedures are for POW's. Making idiotic
statements such as the Geneva Conventions don't apply
to “terrorists” as the conventions only govern wars
between sovereign nations, not between nations and
terrorists. In other words he'll obey the letter of
the law if not the spirit and intent. On one hand he
is publicly condemning the abuses that have taken
place while with the other he's hedging his bets and
saying that it's a darn shame these things have to
happen but hey we haven't violated the Geneva
Conventions. At this point the apologies that are
flying so rapidly from the White House could more
honestly be worded, “Um, I'm sorry we got caught?” How
high up, exactly, does the responsibility and
knowledge of these human rights abuses go in our
government?
The incongruity of the criminal controlling an
investigation and trial into and of it's own crime
while it still maintains control of it's victim is
farcical at best and unbelievably evil at worst. It
resembles Hitler controlling an investigation and
trail for Nazi war criminal's. One of my most favorite
quotes is “Be the change you want to see in the world”
by Gandhi, if we don't live our ideals in public who
can blame the Arab people for having no faith in us?
After having held ourselves and our country out as one
of the most free, justice loving republics in the
world we will never be able to hold our heads up with
pride again unless we prove our good intent by
submitting to a jury of our global peers for judgment.
Maximum penalties must be sentenced for every
individual, up to and including executive officers in
the White House, found to have any responsibility for
the mistreatment of any of the detainees in American
detention centers worldwide, by a United Nations war
crimes tribunal.
E.A. Henson
May 13, 2004
Talieson.com