The media focus on the tortures enacted at Abu Ghraib by American soldiers in the media focused on the soldiers charged with the crimes, namely Lindy English and several others, low rank, whose names I do not recall.
This was all to the liking of the U.S. Defense Department precisely because no one higher up, including the Secretary of Defense or even the President could be charged with having given implicit consent for such crimes (even though George W. Bush went public and explained the necessity for torture in the "War Against Terror").
As an American, I cannot and will not believe that such actions were the isolated actions of "a few bad apples."
It's got to be a much larger bag.
The reason I believe this is from my on personal experience growing up and being frequently subjected to taunts and bullying. I did not go to an inner-city school, at least not in elementary school. I did not live in the inner city, either. The bullies were from middle-class families.
Bullying is modus operandi and modus vivendi in American life, and most certainly in the U.S. Army. That said, it also is probably fact of life in most countries around the world. Subjecting others to insults, rage, threats, and coercion may supposedly toughen up individuals, but I think the price paid may be enormous, as the omnipresent violence in American life and the rather disgusting open delight/pleasure/interest in guns, violent films, games, violent news stories more than suggests.
Granted Abu Ghraib is an extreme case, but I do see essential continuity between the "pranks" of children "played on" other children, the bullying of weaker children...hazing at fraternities, the patterns of domination and control that are part of military life, and mistreatment of prisoners with its paroxysms of sadism exemplified by Abu Ghraib.
It was not just Lindy English. The chain of command stopped at her only because the U.S. military made it stop there. She was a scapegoat for a system of violence in the guise of national security.
And unspeakable cruelty towards prisoners of wars does not make America safer, in my opinion.
And when gunfire erupts in our schools and our streets, we scratch our heads, look puzzled, and ask: "How could this have happened?"
When we individually and start telling the truth, as a society, nation, and an entire planet, we may get to the bottom of...
This was all to the liking of the U.S. Defense Department precisely because no one higher up, including the Secretary of Defense or even the President could be charged with having given implicit consent for such crimes (even though George W. Bush went public and explained the necessity for torture in the "War Against Terror").
As an American, I cannot and will not believe that such actions were the isolated actions of "a few bad apples."
It's got to be a much larger bag.
The reason I believe this is from my on personal experience growing up and being frequently subjected to taunts and bullying. I did not go to an inner-city school, at least not in elementary school. I did not live in the inner city, either. The bullies were from middle-class families.
Bullying is modus operandi and modus vivendi in American life, and most certainly in the U.S. Army. That said, it also is probably fact of life in most countries around the world. Subjecting others to insults, rage, threats, and coercion may supposedly toughen up individuals, but I think the price paid may be enormous, as the omnipresent violence in American life and the rather disgusting open delight/pleasure/interest in guns, violent films, games, violent news stories more than suggests.
Granted Abu Ghraib is an extreme case, but I do see essential continuity between the "pranks" of children "played on" other children, the bullying of weaker children...hazing at fraternities, the patterns of domination and control that are part of military life, and mistreatment of prisoners with its paroxysms of sadism exemplified by Abu Ghraib.
It was not just Lindy English. The chain of command stopped at her only because the U.S. military made it stop there. She was a scapegoat for a system of violence in the guise of national security.
And unspeakable cruelty towards prisoners of wars does not make America safer, in my opinion.
And when gunfire erupts in our schools and our streets, we scratch our heads, look puzzled, and ask: "How could this have happened?"
When we individually and start telling the truth, as a society, nation, and an entire planet, we may get to the bottom of...
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