Implicit in Charles Graner's conviction is the message that Graner was the ring leader and responsible for the Abu Ghraib atrocities. We all know that isn't true. Graner is complict and culpable, doubtless. But so are his superiors, the policy makers and the Commander in Chief. Graner's mother, perhaps sensing there is nothing to lose, has said
this:
Army specialist Charles Graner was punished "for something he was told to do," his mother Irma Graner told reporters as he was led away from the military courtroom in hand and leg shackles.
"You know its the higher-ups that should be on trial ... they let the little guys take the fall for them," Irma Graner said outside the courtroom at the Fort Hood army base in Texas.
I wonder if Irma supported the war before her child became infamous?
I did a
Google news search for that bolded phrase above. Only two media sources have reported this (according to that Google search). One is the Chinese paper
Xinhua. It's a sad day when the Chinese press reports something the American press won't.
Maybe I'm just impatient, but Irma's statement was made yesterday so if it were to be reported in the American press, it probably would have been already.
This story also appears at TurkishPress.com with more from Irma:
"You know its the higher-ups that should be on trial ... they let the little guys take the fall for them.
But the truth will come out eventually," Irma Graner told journalists outside the courtroom at the Fort Hood army base in Texas.
She also denounced Bush for comments he made last year after pictures of the abuses at the US-run Iraqi prison caused worldwide condemnation.
"My son was convicted the day President Bush went on TV and said that seven bad apples disgraced the country. But Bush and (Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld are the ones who disgraced the country," she said.
I wonder if Irma's statements were more widely broadcast then maybe the people of the US who are really bearing the brunt of this insane war would realize they are victims of it in the same way as the Iraqis. If they could hear it from one of their own (instead of us long hairs here) it could be more meaningful to them, break through the fog of propoganda our country is immersed in. One can hope.