The
BBC reports today that the ACLU has used the FOIA to obtain details of an ongoing culture of prisoner abuse in Iraq. Not just that but apparently the people resposible were sufficiently powerful that..
staff who complained about abuse were threatened, had their car keys confiscated and e-mails monitored, as well as being ordered not to leave the base or speak to friends or relatives in the US.
The documents obtained by the ACLU are available here Amongst other things they detail beatings of a prisoner and the army taking a nursing mother as a hostage.
I become increasingly depressed and worried as the human values that define our culture are slowly degraded. Worse still this vile behaviour is associated with my nation, my flag, my people.
Having seen how the media and the upper echelons of the American administration closed ranks over Abu Ghraib, that a culture like this existed should come as no suprise.
Everywhere I look in the media it seems there is
evidence of the growing disregard for human life. If we create a value system like this what do we have left? How can we claim any moral high ground? How can we tell ourselves from terrorists when the
things done in our name offend against every principle we claim differentiates us from them. We can pretend that because we are "liberals" these actions aren't associated with us but they are. Every time we sit quietly and let this crap go by it changes what we are, what we represent to the world.
What are we going to do?