By Mathew Maavak
President Bush has condemned the apparent mistreatment of some Iraqi prisoners, saying, "Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America. I didn't like it one bit." (AP, April 30, 2004)
I got up at 3am to read this. Only a cup of coffee confirmed that it wasn't a freak dream. Thankfully, my jaw didn't drop to the floor. Where does one who is rarely short on words -- a common complaint -- start?
The incident was shown, with "photos showing Iraqi prisoners naked except for hoods covering their heads, stacked in a human pyramid, one with a slur written in English on his skin."
Here was the great President's opportunity to tom-tom his grand, moral crusade. That he couldn't escape those photos, and had to do a nice, opportunistic damage control act for the benefit of the American electorate (not citizens) will probably not be analyzed by the mainstream Press. Lets see how Fox News blows their equally shambolic trumpets besides these hollows presidential beats.
At the rate things are going, rather unbelievably, and as the world is pretty much convinced that Americans lack understanding of any kind to say the least, the White House can spin this one off any way they want.
Fall guys needed to be found, and they should ideally be American soldiers, who, when facing combat and seeing their comrades killed, can resort to this kind of punitive punishment. Those facing combat on either side are in fact human; those who never did can muster all the self-righteousness they want. When GIs in Iraq see those mutilated bodies of four American contractors in Fallujah and have the armor ready to exact revenge at very close quarters, it's a surprise that they didn't go further and commit outrages even worse than this incident, which, allegedly took place last year.
The culprits were flouting the Geneva Conventions and the Texas National Guard code of honor. Under the latter's code, you can plan and launch an illegal invasion of another country, right after Sept 11 using a long string of deceptions which, hardly raises an eyebrow enough to threaten the president's incumbency with certainty. From WMD, Al Qaeda links, “45 minutes,” right up to the stonewalling of the Sept 11 Commission. In between this insufferable show, we were served yellow cakes for our informational nourishment. This made-in-Niger wonder worked well for the time it was intended.
Somehow, this man thinks he can distract the world's attention away from Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda and Sept 11. What the thinking world really thinks, is this:
"The lives of those who perished in Sept 11 seem cheap to the president. Remember, many of the victims were bastions of the American capitalist enterprise. Pro-business stooges can still ride on their luck. Even terra firma is dangerous.
You might be a former navy Seal, employed by Blackwell, and yet stray perplexingly into a waiting ambush in Fallujah, known in advance, at least by the residents. Cameras will be around to capture your martyrdom as it did during Sept 11, to shock an American public. For senior executives, it will be "business as usual."
Now, six soldiers are being fried for a non-fatal incident in a war zone? They were guilty, true, but how many died over this never-ending farce? It's one thing to claim disgust in your cool White House Rose Garden, in the presence of the Canadian Prime Minister, and yet something else to be canon fodder in the dessert heat.
I am into my second cup now.
The blame doesn't lie with the president alone. The Arab world has a very different sense of effrontery, and certain words can inflame more passion that Donald Rumsfeld's description of Palestine as a piece of "real estate" around the time of the Jenin Massacre. I have yet to see the photo with that slur, but I can tell you that the "bacon" you have for breakfast can spark more outrage than a few dead Palestinians.
It's not the US President alone who views human lives as cheap. In this instance, I can understand the average American's befuddlement.
Another taboo is the bearing of flesh. "That really, really is the worst atrocity. It affects the honor and pride of Muslim people. It is better to kill them than sexually abuse them," said Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi. (Reuters, April 30, 2004). Looking from a cultural perspective this seems to be worse than killing. That's why the punishment has to be meted out, conveniently.
(One significant fact omitted was that two of the taunting soldiers appeared to be women, something that will doubly inflame Arab fury. Wonder whether this will have repercussions on how female POWs will be treated in future, and general male attitudes towards assault on women. These are days when people can actually watch a battle zone live. Watch future statistics!)
Those six soldiers must have had some real dehumanizing experiences, enough for them to forget this imminent "balancing act of piety." This an opportunity Bush has been waiting, for a global public relations exercise. Those soldiers can always tell the military court that the invasion was illegal anyway; the My Lai heroes never got their just desserts; the masterminds of the attack on USS Liberty or for that matter USS Cole, have yet to be brought to justice. But cannon fodders are not pretty much different from the captives at Guantanamo Bay.
Gee, the humiliation heaped on fellow Americans during Bush's college days (yes, it's true, he went to college and holds an honorary PhD), after that, and right now, doesn't count either. His lifelong conduct was exemplary, showing true modesty and having the highest regards for human dignity.
These soldiers would have to admit their guilt. It was "apparent", committed in camera. Throw in a junior commander, or an out-of-favor senior military official, and the world will gasp in awe at the president's "Judeo-Christian" credentials. Not to mention those hicks in 'Bama, Texas, and elsewhere in the American South who would be hearing heaps of praise during tomorrow's Southern Baptist sermons.
Now, let me read it again, in case those somnolent cobwebs dimmed my wakefulness.
"That's not the way we do things in America. I didn't like it one bit."
I am looking at this statement from all angles, and my flat screen notebook isn't being too helpful. It gets bad when my brand new, made-in-USA Zippo lighter ain't working to well either, quite symptomatic of our times I'd say.
My mind is racing, from slavery, the public lynching of Chinamen in the late 1800s to the violent suppression during the Civil Rights movement.
But, that's history, you could say.
What about the ad hoc strip parlors (read security checks) at US airports (mainly Southern), where anyone from respectable white grandmothers to dark-skinned professional women are the star-attraction? Well, they weren't captured on camera, and they weren't humiliated, I guess. If they were, it's just not the way they do things in America!
Ok. Here is my answer. Name me one nation that has caused the highest number of civilian deaths abroad since WW2 and I'll lay this pre-dawn essay to rest. Take into account the incalculable murders by proxies everywhere and you know the obvious answer. Or is it? Did they come up to a trial?
For the time being, six GIs are going to be used as tools to justify the administration's glowing halo. For an act of humiliation, when mutilations of all kinds go unabated? Sunday mass would be packed!
Kuala Lumpur May 1, 2004
Copyright@ Mathew Maavak, 2004.
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