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05/07/2004
Unamerican. I haven't wanted to talk about it. Unspeakable, it is too grave to gossip about, too shaming to huff about over after-dinner drinks. Only grieving has seemed appropriate. But yesterday, another picture. That woman — an American soldier — stands in the hallway of the notorious prison, she holds a leash, and at the other end, a naked man cowers on the floor. My heart breaks with shame and with the sure knowledge that the horrible exists in us all, it has only to be nurtured and allowed to flourish.
All it needs is fertile ground. All it needs is rot. And that is something Americans have plenty of — because the Bush administration has repeatedly used this "War on Terror" to justify all kinds of acts that flout "American values."
Because there's a war on: The administration can dump the nation's longstanding non-aggression/no-first strike doctrine and install a policy of "pre-emption." (.pdf)
Because there's a war on: The administration can lie ... to Congress, as Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz did when he said the reconstruction would be paid for by Iraqi oil money. And to the world, as the President did when he made false claims about Iraq's acquisition of uranium in the 2003 State of the Union address.
Because there's a war on: The government can lock up people indefinitely without trial or representation.
Because there's a war on: The FBI can secretly access the library and book buying records of American citizens.
Because there's a war on: The administration can interpret the Geneva Conventions in any way that suits its agenda.
And if all these things — and many more distinctly unamerican things — are possible, are justified, why is Abu Ghraib surprising? After all, the administration tells us every day that 9/11 changed everything, that the war justifies everything. That the ends justify the means.
CNN is on. The Senate hearings drone on in the background. Elizabeth Dole is extolling the virtues of the US occupation of Iraq. She is talking about schools and votes for women. She says that the prisoner abuse in no way represents American values. Words. We can make them true. In this election year, let us show the world that the American people are not false, warlike, blinded by hubris, abusive and inhumane: vote the architects of this disaster out of office. They do not represent us. Throw them out, because — as Senator Tom Harkin said yesterday — they are stealing from us what we are as a nation.
Know for yourself: Read the Taguba Report. See a preview of the Seymour Hersh article in the New Yorker.