Is war ugly?
It sure is.
The scandal of Pfc. Lynndie England and other members of the coalition forces abusing Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison is quite interesting. Firstly, there is the dilemma of the US forces now. In a media war that the US is beginning to lose, images such as Lynndie England standing next to naked Iraqi detainees, smiling and smoking, is utterly devastating. It brings a lot of more fuel into the belief that the US is actually doing a lot of atrocities around the world - shadow-things hidden under terms such as "intense interrogation" or something like that. We have all heard the rumors of how the US has cooperation with prisons in countries where torture is more used and that certain prisoners are sent to these countries. I am not sure what to believe myself, but I think one thing is certain: The Red Cross should be allowed much more access to prisons in order to check on the conditions of the prisoners. It should be allowed to interview the prisoners without supervision.
Secondly, the case of Lynndie England is a good example of how war actually can bring out the very worst in a human. In general, been given authority over another person can very often lead to lax ethics in dealing with that person. The Stanford psychological experiment of the 1970's (?) is a good example of how power over other people's lives can destroy us.
What kind of view of the prisoners did Lynndie England have? Were they demonized, seen upon as less than human, dirty things that you can treat like dogs? Did she learn about respect for prisoners of war in army school?
Personally I have no illusions when it comes to coalition forces and their actions in Iraq. I think atrocities are being committed every single day. A few men in a truck is shot with a missile due to a misunderstanding. A journalist in Baghdad is shot because one mistakes his camera for a gun. War IS ugly. The rhetorics about "surgical bombing" is laugh-able. There IS no such thing as a war without innocent blood being spilled. Lots of innocent blood.
I hope that the iraqis can manage to look forward, while at the same time documenting what is being done wrong against them.
If the world can tackle facing images of 'hairy muslims' with death in their eyes that decided to pilot an airplane into a building, then we can also tackle images of 'innocent-looking' sweet 21-year old female US soldiers acting like true beasts towards other human beings.
"I just wanted to make sure you guys knew she was a human being," Hardy told reporters. [
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Lynndie England is all too human. So are the terrorists that go on bombing planes, trains, mosques or embassies.
The moment we degrade the life of another person to less than human, we are moving in dangerous waters.
