The Abu Ghraib scandal

At the time Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq, the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad was known as a notorious detention center where thousands of people considered dangerous to the regime were detained, tortured and often made to disappear without a trace. As prisons go, Abu Ghraib is quite an extensive detention center and was, as was to be expected, immediately taken over by the U.S. military forces after the fall of Baghdad.

It would have been just a detention center to detain and interrogate those whom the occupation forces considered to be potentially dangerous elements -- remnants of the defeated enemy. But the widely circulating photographs of the abuse and brutal treatment of the Iraqi prisoners that have been committed in this former prison of the Saddam Hussein regime have made the name Abu Ghraib a household word.

However, in all the extensive reporting by the Western media about the Abu Ghraib scandal, one dimension appears to have been overlooked. Using dogs to intimidate prisoners may be a practice normally used by security and intelligence agencies in some countries. But doing so in an Islamic society is seen as particularly degrading, even against people in detention. And stripping men and exhibiting them before leering prison personnel is indeed a grossly denigrating act. And to make matters worse, female soldiers were pictured taking part in humiliating the prisoners.

All this would never have come to light were it not for the fact that Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba was assigned to conduct "an informal investigation" of detention and interrogation operations by the 800th Military Police brigade, particularly "allegations of maltreatment at Abu Ghraib prison. Gen. Taguba, an officer of Filipino descent and known as a "straight shooter", has produced a damning report. When asked by the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, he attributed the shocking abuses at Abu Ghraib to a "failure in leadership" from the brigade commander down. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who also appeared before the Senate committee, assured the senators that anyone found guilty of abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib would be punished in accordance with the country's military penal law.

So far, seven are due to be court martialled. Out of the senate hearings the speculation arose that some higher officers might also be responsible. Demands were even aired for Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to step down or be dismissed by the U.S. president, George Bush.

In the meantime, President Bush, Secretary Rumsfeld and a number of Republican politicians are insisting that the Abu Ghraib scandal involves only a handful of people who do not represent the dedication and discipline of the U.S. armed forces. They have also asserted that what happened at Abu Ghraib does not exemplify core American values.

Perhaps it would be wise at this point to ponder the disturbing question as to whether the Abu Ghraib prison scandal indeed stands as an isolated case perpetrated by a very small number of soldiers, or whether those disgraceful practices were caused by policy decisions that, from the outset, were incorrect. An important part of the answer might be found in a book written by Bob Woodward, the Washington Post journalist who recently published the widely acclaimed Plan of Attack. Bob Woodward describes President Bush as a leader so imbued by a strong sense of mission that he is determined to topple President Saddam Hussein by attacking Iraq. This overpowering commitment became even stronger after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

This almost religious belief that by toppling Saddam Hussein and transforming Iraq into an open democratic society, the whole Middle East could eventually be transformed into a region where democracy and humanist values are upheld, is also shared by his close associates such as Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and even the occasionally wavering Secretary of State, Colin Powell. The numerous planning sessions with Gen. Tommy Franks, Secretary Rumsfeld and CIA director George Tenet, point to a two- dimensional approach, very much based on the conviction that America's technological superiority would assure success in transforming Iraq.

This overconfidence that led Rumsfeld to dispatch a streamlined expeditionary force into Iraq has created an attitude that left the occupiers totally unprepared to face the complexities of occupied Iraq. The trial and conviction of those involved in the Abu Ghraib scandal, we suspect, will not end the frustrations the U.S. is facing. As long as this missionary zeal continues to pervade Washington and the conviction prevails that it is the noble task of the United States to transform Iraq, the Middle East and even the world in accordance with their own ideological views, America will continue to face the frustrations that are caused by the frailties of human nature.