This is just sick. Ghost detainees, rape, attack dogs, deaths - and there is no sign that anyone in a senior position is being held accountable. Though there are plenty of signs (in this case, even from Republican-appointed panels) that senior officials are responsible. This is the kind of thing that we should be above if we expect to have any sort of legitimacy in our fights for human rights around the world. And it is the kind of thing we should work to prevent from happening (and further undermining our position) in the future. However, our complacency on this issue conveys a lack of concern. In terms of our own behavior and self-image it shows that it's something we are not seriously concerned about, and don't really regret doing. And in terms of our image abroad, it shows that we are willing to live up to the worst things said about us by our enemies. This prisoner abuse story might have faded from public view in this country, but it is still very much in mind elsewhere in the world. And given that pictures like these are now what many people in the Middle East associate with US foreign policy it is not at all surprising that many people in the region are attacking Americans, and few have much interest in working with the Bush administration.
UPDATE: Here are some notes on a speech by Sy Hersh that deals with this topic. Hersh has been doing some of the best reporting on this scandal.
Posted by armand at August 24, 2004 10:05 AM | TrackBack | Posted to PoliticsKrugman has a piece today linking the war record to Abu Ghraib. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/24/opinion/24krugman.html?hp
"The young John Kerry spoke of leaders who sent others to their deaths because they wanted to seem tough, then "left all the casualties and retreated behind a pious shield of public rectitude." Fifteen months after George Bush strutted around in his flight suit, more and more Americans are echoing Gen. Anthony Zinni, who received a standing ovation from an audience of Marine and Navy officers when he talked about the debacle in Iraq and said of those who served in Vietnam: "We heard the garbage and the lies, and we saw the sacrifice. I ask you, is it happening again?"
Mr. Kerry also spoke of the moral cost of an ill-conceived war - of the atrocities soldiers find themselves committing when they can't tell friend from foe. Two words: Abu Ghraib."