April Rogers
PS101OL Graded
Assignment Lesson 8
October 7, 2012
Are
there any proper answers in the degradation and exploitation of Iraqi prisoners
at Abu Graib prison? Excuses are not
acceptable. In April of 2004, the world
was made grossly aware that US soldiers shamefully performed ghastly and
disgusting acts on Iraqi prisoners within the Abu Graib detention
facility. We all can recall the photos
of hooded, nude prisoners sometimes being tortured with dogs and electrical
devices. Then President George Bush
offered up an apology and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld took “full
responsibility”. Our reading indicates
that President Obama took further steps by releasing documentation laying out legal
justification for prisoner abuse. Only
then did the world discover that it was okay for US military personnel to slam
Iraqi prisoners against walls, water-board and keep prisoners shackled from
ceilings for hours. It was even
authorized for inmates to be deprived of sleep for days and locked in
coffin-like boxes. The release of that
information was quickly condemned and tagged as politically motivated. Conservatives claimed that those repulsed by
prisoner abuse and support abuse investigations must “hate America” and are
“blood-thirsty Hard Left”.
Interestingly, Congress passed legislation making it legal for US
military personnel to perform some of the disgusting acts performed at Abu
Graib, thereby normalizing human degradation and allowing for the death of
outrage. The MP’s who were caught and
convicted of the abuse say they were simply following orders. Excuses?
Truth? Lies?
Lynndie England, the female soldier who was photographed during
several tortures, still refuses to apologize for her actions. In 2005, she was
dishonorably discharged and convicted of conspiracy, maltreating detainees and
committing an indecent act. Ten other
military personnel (including two other women) were convicted as well. Unable or unwilling to admit any remorseful
feelings towards her actions, she does admit feelings of guilt towards the
American lives lost as a direct result of her actions and those of others at
Abu Graib (dailymail.co.uk.com, March 19, 2012). Purported ring-leader, Charles Graner, was
sentenced to 10 years but was released from Fort Leavenworth Kansas in 2011
after serving only 6 ½ years. He
is the last defendant to be released with the longest sentence.
Human
behaviors are affected by a combination of the power of the situation, internal
forces, plus personal attitudes (Myers, 2010).
The abuses of Abu Graib inmates include
torture, rape, sodomy and homicide, were all committed by US military and US
governmental agency personnel in an overcrowded prison where the command
structure broke down. De-individualization
doesn’t necessarily us behave badly; it makes us more likely to conform to
whatever norms are present in the situation (Postmes & Spears, 1998 as
cited in Lilienfeld, et al, 2009). While
we can all understand that certain situations during war-time call for certain
actions that otherwise would not be acceptable in normal civilization. However, these actions go beyond anything
that can be within a shadow of humane.
President Obama should not have released the memos itemizing the
legitimizing of abuses as it only served to irritate recent human rights
wounds. No, we are not all torturers and
there are still plenty of us out here who are outraged by the disgusting acts
of the few in society who lay down their civilized ways just because they
perceive a situation calls for it. Conservative
or liberal, what happened at Abu Graib prison was wrong.
Lilienfeld, S., Lynn, S., Namy, L., Woolf, N. (2009). Psychology, From Inquiry to Understanding. New York, Pearson.
Myers, D. (2010). Social Psychology (10th Edition).New
York, McGraw-Hill
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