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Editorial:
Abu Ghraib is part of a long
pattern of historical abuse.
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The
U.S. military humiliations, tortures and deaths of Iraqi
prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison have a long and sordid history.
It has gone on since the birth of the nation, it continues
today in America’s prisons that presently dot the national
landscape. The military invasion and occupation of Iraq
is a solid foundation for these kinds of abuse, if you think
you’re there to “straighten” out a country, you already
assume they are less than capable of doing this on their
own. You assume they’re less than human.
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Because
they are brown-skinned, Muslim, and poor, some people in
the United States have justified the most heinous acts in
the recent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Look at how
nonchalantly most Americans took the recent killings of
women, children, insurgents and innocents by U.S. forces
in Fallujah, some say around 600 in the first three weeks,
soon after four American paid mercenaries (mislabeled as
“contractors”) were killed, dragged out of their cars and
burned. The level of revenge in that siege followed a long
historical thread, “Remember the Alamo” (more than 600 Mexicans
soldiers were massacred in the battle of San Jacinto in
revenge for the 200 Alamo defenders killed by the Mexican
army), Wounded Knee (the 7th Calvary, the same one that
George Custer belonged to, exacted their revenge by massacring
300 unharmed Lakotas), and My Lai (the killings of several
hundred innocent Vietnamese by U.S. soldiers) were some
of the most dramatic examples.
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Look
at what happened after September 11, 2001, the U.S. has
already killed three times over the number of innocents
that were destroyed in the Twin Towers. War does something
to people. It can intoxicate them, poison their spirits,
their resolve; it can mutate their values, their life-long
innocence, it can make rather passive and fun-loving people
into beasts. War for empire, power, oil or land does this
even worse. At least three of the current U.S. personnel
being tried for the Abu Ghraib abuses are women - considered
regular good folk at home. But in the photos taken in the
notorious Iraqi prison, two of them were seen smiling, laughing,
hanging around as if they were at a local hamburger stand.
Why is anyone surprised?
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The
people of this country have a lot of healing to do - from
our complicated history of racism, the slave trade, the
battles between the rich and poor, between the capitalists
and working class, foreign invasions, colonialism, and more.
We need a true reckoning, a true accounting, a true reconciliation,
or such acts will always be part of America’s historical
legacy. We have no moral ground to stand on to invade foreign
countries and remove tyrannical regimes. As “liberators,”
we are only hypocrites. President Bush and his neoconservative
advisors have already made clear their real aim, to establish
by hook or crook an “American” century, the world at the
beck and call of one highly advanced military might. This
is called empire, regardless of what they want to call it.
It’s time to heal, to really heal, or we’ll be doomed to
repeat these kinds of atrocities for generations to come.
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