The first conviction for the Abu Ghraib atrocities, that of Army Reserve Spec. Charles A. Graner Jr., does nothing to answer the question I asked right at the beginning of this: where were the officers? Where are the officers? Is this a professional army or is it a typical bureaucracy which proports to be a fighting arm of the U.S. govt. ?

The answer might lie somewhere between: all peace-time militaries are full of time-servers. After a period of conflict as in, say, the first year or so of World war II, the whole shebang is tightened up. This will happen with the U.S. military because it is serving in Iraq for the long-term: not two or three, but maybe 10-15 years. Don't think it will be packing up and walking away completely in 12 months time.

Many of the useless people in its ranks will eventually be sacked, or walk out of their jobs backwards: it won't happen in a few months. Many don't care, anyway, what they do when they serve in Iraq: they are being held there for want of replacements, so are resentful and prone to take it out on the people they are dealing with in a non-fighting capacity.

Pay 'em more and get some fresh recruits in. Promise 'em perfomance bonuses. Give 'em bigger pensions. If the American public really believe in this business; if they learn what it means for the Middle East and the world generally, then good quality recruits will join up with the specific purpose of helping to sort Iraq out.

The U.S. military (and their allies of course) have been in Iraq for two years. A significant number are reservists. Some of these are good because they are older and more mature, holding down responsible jobs in civie street: these are the one's we hear about pulling their fingers out to help the Iraqi people in ways they think fit: using their intiative in a ways the less good personnel can't or won't do, probably because of their recent training.

The only way the Abu Ghraib business will be properly laid to rest - in public relations and in moral terms - is when officers of at least Major rank are also tried for what they didn't do to prevent the Abu Ghraib abuse: as high up as they dare without loosing too much face. It would be good, once all the patsies have been tried and convicted, if the President and the Secretary of Defence eventually admit the buck stopped with them; that they are responsible for what happened even if they didn't know it was going on.

Enough has already been disclosed about interrogation techniques to know it is endemic, institutionally. There are a few links further back down this site to something called RSI, which stands for resistance to interrogation, not repetitive strain injury: though without trying to make light of something very serious, there will be a few strains due to repetition of something or other). If you type in RSI in Google there are a a few refrences but you will need to go down a long way....
  ¶ Saturday, January 15, 2005 0 Comments

 

Skewed views
I admit to having a slighted skewed view of the world, let alone this country of my childhood. However, bear with me when I say this story has a certain resonance with the general tenor of events in Iraq.

It came from The Sunday Telegraph 28 March 2004. A certain Mr. Khadom Sharif Hassan, well known to most Iraqis as Iraq's weightlifting champion, was the man seen by the whole world delivering the first blows to Saddam's statue in Firdos Square on 9 April 2003. According to the Telegraph account, "the beefy hero" was, at the time the article was written, languishing in jail, accused of stealing a 50 year-old Norton motorcycle, made in England, from Baghdad's National Army Museum. It was, it seems, one of the former dictator's most treasured exhibits. It is reputed to be the vehicle on which the young Saddam fled to Syria in 1959 after the infamous failed assassination attempt on Iraq's then Prime Minister.

Mr. Hassan explained, from his prison cell, he felt he had a right to the bike. As chief mechanic to Uday Hussein, he had spent many hours lovingly maintaining the priced Norton.

Mr. Hasson said he had not stolen the item, but bought it from a looter.

" I knew he has stolen it, but I has a duty to take it and look after it. I love that bike. I course, I hate Saddam, but what he did wasn't the bikes fault. It is a special thing in Iraq's history."

Indeed it is. I wonder if Saddam will be asked about his cowardly early life when he is on trial? Will he be asked to explain how different reality was from the film about the attempted assassination he has made with the help of a western film director? I truly hope so.

The fantasy that Saddam created around himself has been a large part of the reason for the suffering of the Iraqi people. If all this is not thoroughly aired in court, then the long suffering people of Iraq will not be able to fully put the past behind them, after Saddam has been duly tried and sentanced, and move on to the better life that they deserve.

Has Mr. Hassan been released from prison yet, or does he still languish in prison?



  ¶ Thursday, January 13, 2005 0 Comments