Today Lynndie England, the pug-faced accessory to torture at Abu Ghraib, was sentenced to three years in prison. My friend Patricia Pearson, an expert on female violence, would chastise me for accepting even part of England's plea that she had lost her moral compass because she was under the spell (and yoke) of her vicious boyfriend, Charles Graner. It is not because of England's sex that I partially accept this, however: I am convinced that an atmosphere of utter license will alter almost anyone's behavior. The weak will follow the strong, and the strong will become feral. Even Graner—an exceptionally vile piece of work—would not have behaved as he did if this Dostoyevskian climate had not been encouraged at the prison. "Everything is permitted."
With that in mind, I'm posting something I wrote in May about the atrocities at Bagram—the argument remains relevant:
--------------------------------------------
GEORGE WALKER BUSH AND THE TORTURE OF THE INNOCENT
In February 2002, President Bush announced that the Geneva Conventions would not apply to prisoners associated with Al Qaeda and the Taliban. In December of that year, an innocent Afghan taxi driver was tortured to death, mostly for the sake of entertainment, in an American detention center.
Many will argue that these facts are not connected. After all, what does the Commander in Chief have to do with the behavior of a handful of sadistic underlings thousands of miles away? The answer, of course, is: everything.
Soldiers are killers, by definition, and a good soldier is a good killer. On the battlefield, this is a virtue; in the prison system, it is a recipe for barbarism. History tells us, again and again, that the only reliable way in which trained killers can be prevented from abusing captive enemies, is through rigorous and responsible leadership.
The sad truth is that unsupervised prison guards—even if they are not professional killers—tend to become sadistic, very quickly. This was demonstrated by the notorious Stanford Prison Experiment of 1971, in which ordinary university students—mostly peaceniks, in fact—were given the opportunity to run a mock prison. Within days they were abusing their wards to such an extent that the experiment had to be called to a halt. (The process was dramatized to stunning effect in Das Experiment, a German film released in 2001.)
What does this mean? Well, apart from everything else, it means that many of the unspeakably brutal prison guards in Afghanistan—and yes, there were many—became sadists as a direct consequence of the Bush administration's failure of leadership. And this failure can be linked, directly, to the president's own public renunciation of basic principles of decency: specifically those outlined by the Third Geneva Convention, which governs the treatment of prisoners of war.
Tim Golden in the New York Times reported at length (May 20, 2005) on the torture which was daily fare at the US detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan. If you can read this article without experiencing palpable nausea, then I suspect you would be very much at home in the ranks of those prison guards.
Article comments
1 - Barry Stoller
Very well written with a devastating conclusion. Funny, I don't hear all the usual blogcritic rightwingers make their usual glib remarks. That's quite an accomplishment on this forum.
2 - Dave Nalle
It's still early Barry.
But you know what, most right wingers don't endorse torture either. Even President Bush who does believe in some extreme measures when dealing with terrorists, doesn't endorse what went on at Abu Ghraib. What happened there was clearly in violation of miitary policy, and what has come out in these trials is that the soldiers knew that and chose to act as they did anyway. Some responsibility goes up the chain of command, but soldiers still aren't required to obey unlawful orders, especially when - as in this case - they really originated from outside the chain of command in the first place.
Dave
3 - alienboy
Fabulous piece of work Mr Cooper, thanks for writing it.
Isn't it odd that no officers have been convicted?
4 - steve
I could care less about the terrorists being held at guantanamo bay. I hope they all rot there. they are guilty until proven innocent
5 - The Searcher
The Stanford experiment was very revealing indeed.
If only Gort would come down and ensure everyone plays fair.
6 - Christian
"Isn't it odd that no officers have been convicted?"
The soldiers involved in the Bagram, Afghanistan incident have suffered for their actions.
By the way - Specialist Damien M. Corsetti was never accused of taking "this man to the extremes of excruciating pain". Get it right.
7 - Silas Kain
George Walker Bush -- the man elected to embody the soul of the nation --
Um, like it or not, but doesn't G.W. Bush, in fact, embody the soul of this nation? From the liberal POV we have an apathetic, disconnected leader who only takes interest in issues when the shit hits the fan. From the conservative POV we have a leader who is the bastion of all that is good and righteous about America, praise Jesus. Now, my friends, I ask you -- which side is wrong?
8 - Douglas Anthony Cooper
>By the way - Specialist Damien M. Corsetti was never >accused of taking "this man to the extremes of >excruciating pain". Get it right.
By the way, my article says that it did *not* take Corsetti to do this. Which is to say, they didn't need him, and didn't call him in. Learn to read.