Wednesday, February 15, 2006

More Abu Ghraib Pictures

Here we go again. More photos have appearently surfaced showing US troops humiliating Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison in 2003...yeah thats what I said 2003. There is nothing new to the story, except to once again incite anti-Americanism around the world and especially within the Arab community. These photos were shown by a Austrailian television station last night, yet they would not comment on where they got the photos. Now, just like the last time, this story is acting as fuel to the hate-Bush press, whom almost in unacin are plastering the new images all over their newspapers and websites. Just to show the hypocracy here, Ill use CNN as an example. CNN refuses to show the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed that have caused outrage in many Muslim countries, however they have no problem showing these pictures. I dont understand that logic. These pictures put American servicemen and women in danger today, even though these abuses took place almost three years ago and have been corrected. I think I last heard that eight of the troops involved have been prosecuted. The military is obviously unhappy with the release of these pictures as a CNN article illustrates:
Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, spokesman for the US led coalition in Iraq, said he thought the timing of the new report was "unnecessarily provocative" and "irresponsible." He said that any photos from that time period "do not reflect was is happening at Abu Ghraib now."
Obviously this Austrailian TV station just wants the publicity and does not care about the ramifications of their actions, much like Newsweek who printed that false story about US troops flushing the Koran down the toilet in Guantanamo. I hope this story does not become as big of a deal as it did last time, because it really is irrelevant. The military has fixed the problem and moved on and thats all we can ask. But you can bet this will be all over the news tomorrow being used once again as political pull to protest the war in Iraq, dont believe me, I guarentee you this story will be front page news in tomorrows New York Slimes and Washington ComPost.

-Brad

3 comments:

Scott said...

Do you think it's possible that in 2009 we'll be seeing pictures from 2006 that highlight more prisoner abuse? I wouldn't count out the possibility.

I think Bush and Cheney are doing enough on their own to fuel "hate-Bush press."

These pictures are putting American serviceman/women in danger...that's a good point, because being stationed in Iraq right now isn't dangerous at all. Lets hope they're well-armored now that these new pictures are out.

What reason would the military ever have to be happy with the media? They have to deal with morons from ABC News and the like who think it's a good idea to stand in the middle of a warzone to report that a war is going on--wow, that's earth-shattering news. Thanks, Bob Woodruff...without you almost dying I never would've known that there was a raging insurgency that was killing our military personnel.

I don't think these pictures are irrelevant...they're relevant. We need to rid our military of people who allow torture to happen (like Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld) and those who conduct the torture.

I never understood the outcry that people actually think that flushing a Koran down the toilet never ever actually happened. Does it really seem that far fetched that it happened? I don't think it's far-fetched at all.

Bill Maher had a good line about the whole flushing the Koran down the toilet thing, he said something like, "Damn, Haliburton sure makes a helluva toilet!"

Anonymous said...

I believe that the men and women who serve in the armed forces should be allowed to do as they please. They risk their lives for our freedom, so why do we need to scrutinize them in the media? I believe that what they do over in Iraq should be allowed, I don't see to much mercy from the terrorist organizations who choose to cut off the heads of our citizens? I mean I believe that what goes around comes around, they don't show mercy to us, so why would we feel the need to show mercy to them?

Scott said...

How are we supposed to "Advance the Cause of Democracy" as this administration wants to do, if we not only force our way of government onto a fundamentally undemocratic culture (Iraq) but we also violate our own principles of democracy?

My point is this: by allowing things like torture into our military system, we've become what we're fighting against. As Bruce Springsteen asks, "What if what you do to survive kills the things you love?" He means this: If you're murdering (or in our case torturing) in order to literally survive from death, or even simply advance a cause, you're killing your inner democratic ideals (liberty, freedom etc...) and replacing it with the unknown--or as Springsteen answers, "Devils and dust."

Throwing Springsteen into the mix is just simply for a different perspective, but I think he hits the nail on the head. I disagree that our military should be able to do anything they want. I also don't believe our president's should be able to do anything they want--they should have to adhere to the checks/balances that congress and the supreme court place on them, not to mention the people. Bush should hold respect for the 49% of people who didn't vote for him in the last election, not hold them in utter contempt and throw them aside. Congress should also not unilaterally invest blind faith in our president to commit troops to battle.

Our military, those brave soldiers who are risking their lives for our country, deserve better than Bush.