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Un-Doctored Truth
Instapundit lead us to this "Iraq the Model" interview of an Iraqi doctor who actually did a stint through Abu Gharib during the period when all the abuses took place. His point of view is quite interesting:
[ItM]: But couldn’t it be true that there were abusive actions at those times that the prisoners were afraid to tell you about?[Doctor:] -Are you serious!? These criminals, and I mean both types [political and criminal] tell me all about there [sic] 'adventures and bravery'. Some of them told me how they killed an American soldier or burned a humvee, and in their circumstances this equals a confession! Do you think they would’ve been abused and remained silent and not tell me at least!? No, I don’t think any of this happened during the time I was there. It seemed that this happened to a very small group of whom I met no one during that month.
It's too easy to think the prisoners deserved what they got. But it's also all too easy to think every one of those guys was an angel. The answer, as always, is somewhere in between.
As an interesting bit of news on this subject, I've been listening to the Senate hearings on this throughout the day. While we have had roughly 250K troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, we've currently got 83 complaints about mistreatment of prisoners - and 20 or so of those were at roadblocks. From what I can gather, each of these was filed by other soldiers. Also, doing the math, this comes out to 0.03% of the total troops are causing problems. It's also important to note that we've been investigating alleged abuses since December/January and have prosecuted many of them (punishments ranging from discharge to article 15, can't remember if anyone is in Leavenworth). Also, I believe the 7 individuals in the pictures are all on trial now and the people in the back who were ignoring it are going to be tried soon as well. There are at least two high level military investigations in place right now to determine where the buck stops on this.
Also, the atrocities appear to have been limited to just this one jail.
All in all, I think we've got the situation under better control than people might think...
Posted by: ron on May 11, 2004 09:59 PMinteresting read.
that blog is a very good supplement to http://wildfirejo.blogspot.com/
thank you :)
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@ron: (taken from http://cryptome.org/icrc-report.htm)
"The testimonies were collected in Camp Cropper (Core HOlding Area, Military Intelligence section, "High Value Detainees" section); Al-Salihiyye, Tasferat and Al-Russafa prisons; Abu Ghraib Correctional Facility (including Camp Vigilant and the "Military Intelligence" section); Umm Qasr and Camp Bucca, as well as several temporary internment places such as Tallil Trans-Shipment Place, Camp Condor, Amarah Camp and the Field Hospital in Shaibah."
so this may be not "just one prison", but it looks as if the torture is limited to mostly intelligence sections. I too don't think this mess has anything to do with the majority of the troops.
I also don't understand why most of the public is so enraged about this. They've been told countless times that "the gloves come off" after 9/11, what did they think this would look like?