Moral Pomposity
 

When all of the other reasons for invading Iraq were proven to be invalid, we were whipped into a frenzy of patriotic zeal to bring democracy to the Iraqis and save them from the brutality of Saddam Hussein. People immersed in the milk of human kindness said it didn't matter that there were no WMD, we're going to liberate the Iraqi people and that's a loftier goal. After one year, Donald Rumsfeld said it was worth the cost, George Bush said it was worth the lives of our American troops who were fighting to bring freedom to Iraq.

For a year now, there have been hints. We've read a statement here, a paragraph there, an article in an alternative online magazine, but we ignored them for the most part, and then suddenly we turned on 60 Minutes II and there they were. A dozen pictures showed American MPs with naked, hooded Iraqi prisoners in different sexual poses, from standing in a line, masturbating while a grinning female MP pointed at his genitals, to a pyramid of naked men with another female MP behind them. Whatever statements or articles we may have read about reports of abuse, nothing prepared us for those photographs. One, of an Iraqi man in a black poncho and black hood standing on a box with electrodes attached to his fingers and genitals was especially moving. He stood with his arms outstretched, reminiscent of the position of Christ on the cross. They were taken at Abu Ghraib prison, notorious for being the site of torture under Saddam Hussein. All that was needed was a sign that said, "Under New Management". Same place, different abusers.

The pictures were disturbing for several reasons. Of course, seeing human beings being so degraded, particularly when nudity, homosexuality, and humiliation at the hands of a woman attack Muslim men on both a cultural and religious level, was difficult to witness. Even more disturbing was having to confront an image very different from the image we have of ourselves. How could these young fresh-faced American troops take such delight in torturing people? Aren't they in Iraq, risking their lives, to liberate these very same people from being tortured at the hands of Saddam?

We felt so righteous on our mission of Iraqi Liberation. Our moral values were obviously higher than anyone else's. We boycotted countries that wouldn't join us and smugly told the world we would go it alone if necessary because we were the champion of human rights. And we waved our flags as we sent our sons and daughters off to the Middle East to win the hearts and minds of the people there.

And then we saw the pictures. Along with the publication of the photos was a report prepared by Gen. Antonio Taguba that described, not only the abuses the pictures showed, but other tortures like rape of both men and women, pouring the phosphorous liquid from chemical light sticks over the prisoners, sodomizing prisoners with light sticks and brooms, surrounding a naked prisoner with snarling attack dogs, dragging a naked man along the floor on a leash held by a female MP, beating a man to death and posing with the dead body, and the list of horrors goes on. The report said the abuse was systemic. It was happening at all the military prisons in Iraq. President Bush said, "This isn't America." But it is and there are photos to prove it.

We have changed. Perhaps that's what war does to us. Daily doses of bombs and bodies, death and destruction, coming into our homes on our TV screens has the power to change you.

We are outraged at the images we've seen, but not because of moral indignation at the torture of fellow human beings. We have de-humanized Arabs and Muslims and hold them all responsible for 9-11. We don't differentiate the 25 million people in Iraq from the few hundred or few thousand members of al-Qaida. Our outrage was that the photos were made public. As long as it could be done in secret, as long as we didn't have to view what we really were capable of, as long as we didn't have to see that our morality was just for show and disappeared when we thought no one was looking, we could ignore the torture and abuse of the Iraqi prisoners.

During the Senate investigation we heard our defense mechanisms take over in a statement by one of the senators. To avoid the guilt we attempt to justify our actions by further dehumanizing Arabs.

"I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment," Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said during the hearing. "These prisoners, you know, they're not there for traffic violations," he said. "If they're in cellblock 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners, they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands, and here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals."

The fact that the International Red Cross has said that 70-90% of the prisoners are innocent and subsequently released makes no difference. We can excuse ourselves because "they're terrorists" and have American blood on their hands. By using the word terrorist we program ourselves to recall 9-11. We can now by-pass the Geneva Conventions and our moral pomposity, which allows us to feel superior, can remain intact.

That moral pomposity is clearly characterized in the statement made by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, after an execution of an American, said to be in retaliation for the Iraqi prisoner abuse. "It shows the true nature of the enemies of freedom. They have no regard for the lives of innocent men, women and children. We will pursue those who are responsible and bring them to justice."

It would seem that the Iraqis could make the same statement without having to change a word. We somehow feel that we have the right to do exactly what we condemn in others. Ironically, because of some of the Bush "we are good and they are bad" rhetoric in speeches peppered with words like "evildoers" and "axis of evil", there are those who have interpreted this as a crusade, a religious war, Christianity versus Islam. Equally ironic is the fact that it is the Christian Fundamentalists in America who, as a group, are more likely to justify and condone the very un-Christian abuses.

The war in Iraq this past year has been costly in both lives and money. Perhaps the most costly has been the loss of our humanity as a nation. Our shining city on the hill is a lot dimmer.

5-12-04