Lest we forget. A couple of weeks ago Der Spiegel published a long piece on people whose lives had been ruined by Abu Ghraib. Now it's available in English. It's a must read for anyone concerned with the moral implications of our adventure in Iraq. The stories of two men -- one a prisoner, the other a guard -- are compelling, and their stay in hell, horrifying.
Read it here.
Don't get me wrong. I was, and still am, a strong supporter of the war effort, but I absolutely hate knowing that American troops have committed outrages such as these. What they have done in our name shames us all.
Just as we should never allow the images of 9-11 to fade from our memories, we should revisit these from time to time to remind us of the worst that we do.
With that in mind, it is particularly disappointing to read this:
From the International Herald Tribune:
Bush repeats threat to veto torture curb
The White House repeated an earlier veto threat Thursday after the Senate voted by an overwhelming bipartisan margin for a measure to prevent mistreatment of prisoners held by the
The 90-to-9 vote to ban "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" of anyone in U.S. government custody was one of the sharpest political rebukes in Washington of a system under which abuses occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan and at the Guantánamo naval base in Cuba.
The abuses, documented in photographs of the humiliation of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in
By the way, that's not Lyndie in the pictures. Her name is Sabrina.
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