A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

by Mary

What would be happening at Abu Ghraib today if those pictures had never been made public? Would anyone really care that Abu Ghraib used a version of torture-lite (albeit with largely untrained soldiers), and that this is the official policy of the US in their goal to "soften up" their prisoners to get information?

One thing came through strongly in the testimony of Rumsfeld and Myers before the Senate Committee was that the release of the pictures themselves were to what the administration (and many others with them) objected, not the acts that the pictures captured. Here was how Myers put it:

MYERS: The story about the abuse was already public, but we were concerned that broadcasting the actual pictures would further inflame the tense situation that existed then in Iraq and further endanger the lives of coalition soldiers and hostages.

Again, it's useful to remember the context here. We were in the midst of some very heavy fighting in Fallujah and other places in Iraq. Some 90 hostages had been taken. It was a very delicate situation that we were trying to resolve.

Since the story of the photographs was already public, I felt we were on good ground on asking him to hold off airing the actual photos. As we are now seeing, the photos are having a very real, very emotional worldwide impact.

But remember, the pictures were taken late last year. Yes, once the situation in Abu Ghraib was discovered, and after the investigation of General Taguba, some people were reprimanded and relieved of their duty and the report was slowly making its way up the chain of command. And even that report was classified as top secret so no one would know the extent of the problem.

Yet, everything else that made Abu Ghraib such as horrible place continued on with business as usual. The overcrowding where many of the prisoners were already known to be innocent were kept without any recourse. And Rumsfeld, himself, refused to let them go even though he was warned that this was a disaster waiting to happen by Paul Bremer, by David Kay and by Colin Powell. The continued presence of the contractor, Steven Stefanowicz, who was singled out in Taguba's report as someone who needs to be removed immediately (and he is still there). The undertrained, demoralized and undermanned MPs that have to guard the prison.

All of this continued on despite the report, despite the words. Perhaps that is because the words were not sufficiently compelling to the hardline neocons who are innured and care not a whit about the injustice and the brutality done in Iraq. As the Guardian reported,

The British former officer said the dissemination of R2I techniques inside Iraq was all the more dangerous because of the general mood among American troops.

"The feeling among US soldiers I've spoken to in the last week is also that 'the gloves are off'. Many of them still think they are dealing with people responsible for 9/11".

So the war was justified by the lies of Bush and his administration and now in the occupation, it shapes the mood and the behavior of the undermanned and demoralized troops who are pawns in the totally twisted neocon dreams of empire.

Without the photos, none of this would have changed. And what is especially chilling is that most will not change even after their appearance. Today the commander of US detention facilities said Abu Ghraib will remain open. And torture-lite is still the official policy.

That means the only thing that has really changed is the brutality and ugliness of the American empire is visible to the world. And to us, the ones in whose name and on whose dime it is done.