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We're fighting for the right to be outraged at those photos (Opinion)
The Telegraph ^ | 03/05/2004 | Barbara Amiel

Posted on 5/3/2004, 12:06:51 AM by Eurotwit

The Red Army marched into East Prussia at the end of the Second World War and along the way to Berlin raped two million German women. They even raped Russian women newly liberated from Nazi camps. When Stalin received complaints about their sexual pillage, he was sanguine. "You have, of course, read Dostoevsky?" he asked the unhappy Yugoslav Politburo member Milovan Djilas, according to Simon Sebag Montefiore's biography Stalin.

"Do you see what a complicated thing is a man's soul? Imagine a man who has fought from Stalingrad to Belgrade … across the dead bodies of his comrades and dearest ones… What is so awful about his having fun with a woman after such horrors?" Not an attitude that George W Bush or Tony Blair can display in the wake of the photographs of coalition soldiers torturing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners.

Those photos! First came the American programme Sixty Minutes. The pictures it aired included American soldiers posing in front of a pyramid of naked Iraqis, with a female soldier having an equal opportunity giggle. After these pictures created a "worldwide reaction'' (as CNN told us in a self-fulfilling prophecy every half-hour), we had more horrors. The Daily Mirror published snaps, allegedly of British soldiers mistreating Iraqi prisoners, including one British soldier of lavatorial bent urinating on a hooded Iraqi prisoner.

Any such behaviour was repellent. It is a separate matter that the volley of media outrage left out the detail that the US Army had been investigating the matter for some time and courts martial were scheduled. British Chief of Staff General Sir Michael Jackson's contained fury made it evident that he was treating the allegations with similar concern.

The first casualty of war, it is claimed, is truth. I'd say the first casualty is context. Demanding that troops, who are subject on a daily basis to roadside bombs, suicide attacks, ambushes and rocket-propelled grenades, should respond without any cruel or unprofessional incidents would be a demand for sainthood. These troops face resentment and hatred from some of the very people they came to liberate and did liberate. Most coalition troops feel, mistakenly or not, that they are doing a favour to people with a personal animosity and primitive methods not usually found in Western warfare.

Bad behaviour may occur under the best of conditions. The troops in Iraq are not in the best of conditions: unlike almost every other confrontation in history, they are seeing the worst side of the war in the postwar period. The Iraqis are giving a far better account of themselves as insurgents than they did during combat operations. Saddam was not worth dying for; for a small group, it seems, Allah and nationalism are well worth it.

While this context may explain the bad behaviour of some coalition soldiers, it doesn't excuse it. Nor would we want any notion that such behaviour was sanctioned either officially or on the wink-and-nod. Other occupying forces, from colonial armies to imperial ones, have permitted barbarous activities in varying degrees. The worst, such as the Nazis, sanctioned torture of prisoners, and "rough'' treatment of civilian populations was their policy, particularly in the east. But more benign forces have acted badly as well. Canada had to disband an entire regiment after soldiers in a peace-keeping operation killed a Somalian youth under torture.

The media reporting of the photos provides another context. Enemies of the West, from Mao Tse-Tung to Osama bin Laden, have had one strategic insight: democracies lose heart in a prolonged conflict, especially one that appears to be supported by a popular insurgency.

The West has distaste for occupation and anything but a purely defensive war or one of genuine liberation will not engender much enthusiasm. Combine this with the nature of democracy, which allocates a special rank to all critics within, and you have an ambience that can easily nibble away at homeland support for any military effort. Without homeland support, a war effort weakens and eventually disintegrates. This, incidentally, is as true for tyranny as democracy - as Saddam himself found out.

Given this, the atrocity photos could not have appeared at a worse time. War fatigue has been slowly building up in the American media. Americans don't like being disliked - who does? - and, while it was all very well standing up against world opinion when it was victory in six weeks and a grateful Iraqi nation, it became quite a different matter when facing a long slog, accompanied by boos and jeers from most UN members and ingratitude from the liberated. This was not supposed to be in the script.

Further, the readers of the script, all those bright newscasters and journalists, who had only just managed - in the name of patriotism - to suppress their dislike of Republicans in general and Mr Bush in particular, felt deceived. On the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, Mr Bush had announced "Mission Accomplished'' and yet, one year later, there were 700 more Americans dead. This permitted the media to shrug off the uncomfortable straitjacket that patriotism had put on their anti-war instincts. Mr Bush's understandable if somewhat premature triumphalism became a bonanza to his opponents. As conservative columnist Kate O'Byrne observed on CNN's Capital Gang programme: "His mistake was in not realising that a war isn't over until the defeated say it's over.''

To some in an American generation that expects everything from food to victory to be available instantly, this turn of events was evidence of mismanagement and a desperate tragedy. Last week, the ABC network devoted an entire evening show to solemnly reading out every single name of the 724 Americans killed in Iraq since the war ended, together with 724 photos, relaying them to the huge screens high above Times Square in the heart of Manhattan. The faces and the names moved across the neon ticker tape one after another; over the milling crowds, over the fast food outlets on Broadway, over the limos jostling for space coming out of the theatre district. It was a very American requiem.

Still, the outrage felt at those photos of torture is what makes this society worth living in. It distinguishes us from our enemies. But, like everything, this outrage has a price. If it is to conclude that we should not defend ourselves against the Saddams of the world, then it is too dear. The secret is to retain the outrage and not draw that conclusion. We have to keep two thoughts parallel in our heads - these are appalling acts that must not be tolerated, but neither are they to be used as a block against our instincts of self-preservation or to render us defenceless against the worst systems and enemies of civilisation.

Integrating those two thoughts is marginally more complicated than walking and chewing gum at the same time, but ultimately far more rewarding.


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iraqipow

1 posted on 5/3/2004, 12:06:52 AM by Eurotwit
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To: Eurotwit; hellinahandcart; kristinn; tgslTakoma; Angelwood; BufordP; BillF; GunsareOK; staytrue
An important article.
2 posted on 5/3/2004, 12:14:08 AM by sauropod ("I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. You will service US.")
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To: Eurotwit
Thanks for posting. Barbara Amiel's comments are always welcome.
3 posted on 5/3/2004, 12:25:32 AM by maica (Member of Republican Attack Machine, RAM, previously known as the VRWC)
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To: sauropod
These photographs may be a very clever psi ops against the US and Britain.
4 posted on 5/3/2004, 12:36:54 AM by Citizen Tom Paine (Only believe what you can verify.)
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To: Eurotwit
Good post! This puts these events in context.
5 posted on 5/3/2004, 12:45:01 AM by The_Media_never_lie
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To: Eurotwit
Excellent piece, as always from her.

We have to keep two thoughts parallel in our heads - these are appalling acts that must not be tolerated, but neither are they to be used as a block against our instincts of self-preservation or to render us defenceless against the worst systems and enemies of civilisation.

Well stated, undeniable and worth repeating.

6 posted on 5/3/2004, 12:45:10 AM by AlbionGirl ("Ha cambiato occhi per la coda.")
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To: Eurotwit
Army raises doubts over 'torture' pictures
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=517641


13 reasons why this picture may not be all it seems
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/03/ntort103.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/05/03/ixnewstop.html
7 posted on 5/3/2004, 12:49:47 AM by bwteim (Begin With The End In Mind)
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To: Citizen Tom Paine
I have been studiously avoiding looking at any such photographs for want of resolve..
8 posted on 5/3/2004, 12:50:44 AM by sauropod ("I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. You will service US.")
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To: bwteim
Lack of blood, bruises and dirt give hint that army 'abuse' pictures were staged

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1128413/posts
9 posted on 5/3/2004, 12:51:12 AM by Eurotwit
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To: Eurotwit
These pics look like something from a porno website. Or so I'm told.
10 posted on 5/3/2004, 12:55:45 AM by gitmo (Thanks, Mel. I needed that.)
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To: Eurotwit
pretty solid bit of writing.
11 posted on 5/3/2004, 5:38:49 AM by King Prout (poets and philosophers should NEVER pretend to Engineering... especially SOCIAL Engineering!)
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To: Eurotwit
I wonder, and wonder who else wonders this:

1. Does anyone but me recall the reports of Iraqi and Arab purchases of US and British uniforms and gear during the run-up to the war?

2. Does anyone really believe it is beyond the capacity and initiative of the anti-US crowd to make similar purchases from, say, Brigade Quartermaster, and make a few hoax pics?

3. Does anyone else wonder whether the two soldiers in the Queen's Regiment might be Mohammedians?
12 posted on 5/3/2004, 5:42:43 AM by King Prout (poets and philosophers should NEVER pretend to Engineering... especially SOCIAL Engineering!)
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To: bwteim
"11. Why is the soldier's face not visible?

"The idea of a trophy picture is to have something that you can keep for ever. In the ones I saw from the Falklands, in which people took pictures of themselves with decapitated Argentinians, their faces could clearly be seen..."

The guy is making no bones that trophy hunting takes place, just not here.

13 posted on 5/3/2004, 6:04:16 AM by endthematrix (To enter my lane you must use your turn signal!)
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To: endthematrix
No doubt.
14 posted on 5/4/2004, 12:34:57 AM by bwteim (Begin With The End In Mind)
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