Word: ghraib
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Shoot me here,? said an Abu Ghraib prisoner pointing to the space between his eyes, ?but don?t do this to us.? To Americans this response is puzzling. Iraqis suffered many horrible, mutilating tortures under Saddam Hussein. How is torture under American forces worse...
...understand why people of the Middle East responded to Abu Ghraib with horror, one needs to recall the legacies of state violence in this region over the centuries. In the beginning, Muslim states did not carry forward many of the worst tortures (including crucifixion) of the Persian and Roman empires they replaced. They did introduce tortures of their own, from the amputation of limbs to the common beating of the soles of the feet, the falaka, that are cruel by our standards. But Muslim societies were guided by ideals and values that Westerners can recognize and which still animate penal...
...Americans at Abu Ghraib violated this understanding. The soldiers exposed the men publicly and added humiliation to injury. They fostered inhuman feelings, both sexual and violent, that broke the bonds of basic human society. They wrapped the bodies of the dead in plastic and ice and left them exposed and photographed. They applied pain in excess of what was permitted or necessary for their duties. They acted in the manner of ancient tyrants...
Secretary Rumsfeld and President Bush must therefore accept part of the responsibility for what transpired at Abu Ghraib and for the Pentagon’s efforts to hide it from public view. Voters should hold Bush accountable in November. And in the meantime, for the good of America, its troops and its citizens, Rumsfeld should look for a different line of work...
American troops and civilians have been directly endangered by the growing furor over the abuse. Abu Ghraib, long a symbol of repression for Iraqis, has now provided further fuel for the resistance’s fire in Iraq. Reprisals are already being carried out: The horrific decapitation of U.S. civilian contractor Nicolas Berg may be a warning sign of what is to come...