Not the Way a Liberator Behaves

For a full year, in the face of ferocious international disbelief and skepticism, the Administration has tried to sell the invasion of Iraq as a war of liberation, not of occupation. The Iraqi people, it was said over and over again, were freed from the darkness of Saddam Hussein’s tyranny and brought into the light of American emancipation. With a relentless public-relations endeavor, the White House has valiantly attempted to put the best face on an ever-mounting military and diplomatic disaster.

All these efforts have now been destroyed.

The revelation that American soldiers physically and sexually abused Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison (which, in a bitter irony, was the main torture chamber used by Saddam’s regime) has demolished America's image in Iraq and much of the Arab world. We are now seen as torturers, worse than simple occupiers and certainly not liberators. Every photograph showing grinning American men and women posing with naked Iraqis and forcing them into sexual poses is a guaranteed recruiting poster for the insurgency which has wreaked so much havoc on the occupation.

The disclosure that American military brass in Iraq not only knew this was happening but actually approved it merely adds another layer of disgust. Weeks ago, the Pentagon issued a secret internal report detailing the abuse; a few soldiers directly implicated were quietly disciplined and everything was hushed up. It never even reached Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s desk.

Then CBS got hold of the report and the photos, publicizing them on 60 Minutes II. The reaction was immediate, and expected. President Bush declared he was shocked, shocked, that such a thing could happen, but steadfastly claimed that only “a few people” were involved. Fox über-pundit Bill O’Reilly and other conservative media voices, after taking a moment to mumble that yes, it’s terrible, the people who did this should be punished, ripped into CBS for reporting it.

The floodgates are now opening. More and more Iraqis are coming forward to say that they, too, were physically abused by their American captors. Women report rape and/or the threat of rape. Men report frequent beatings as a regular part of interrogation. Amnesty International’s report says that while allegations of such mistreatment are all too frequent, “virtually none...has been adequately investigated by the authorities.” The British newspaper The Guardian reported that when the Red Cross came to visit Abu Ghraib, their inspectors were kept away from the prison facilities. It was only in recent weeks that the American occupation authorities even released prisoner lists, ending months of agony for thousands of Iraqi families who literally did not know whether their loved ones were alive or dead.

Some might say that this is much ado about nothing, that the Iraqis in prison did terrible things and deserve what they get. While there is no doubt that Saddam’s regime did indeed commit heinous crimes against the Iraqi people, the basic truth remains that we are better than this. No self-respecting American soldier should ever take part in such activities, and no officer should ever sanction them. This is not the way a liberator behaves.

It will be very difficult for the American occupation authorities to recover from this blow to its credibility, but it is not impossible. The government should take the following steps, immediately if not sooner:

1. Punish those responsible for these outrages, not just the individuals who committed them but their superiors who allowed them to happen. The accountability should lead as far up the chain of command as needed; nobody should be immune due to their rank or position.
2. Open the prisons to unlimited inspection by human rights groups such as the Red Cross and Amnesty International. The short-term disgruntlement over this will be more than outweighed by being able to prove to the world that the abuses have stopped.
3. Allow prisoners to see their families. Post security guards if needed, but Iraqis need to be able to see that their loved ones are alive and well.

Sunshine has always been the best disinfectant. Once the abuses have been ended and the perpetrators have been disciplined – and get more than just a slap on the wrist – the better chance we have of regaining the trust of the Iraqi people and the Arab world.

Then again, as pretty much everything about the invasion and occupation of Iraq has been exposed as lies, deception, and wishful thinking, it may well be too late.