Mary+L

The Unfair Treatment of Iraqi P.O.W.s at Abu Ghraib On 280 acres, a perimeter of 4 kilometers for security, 24 guard towers, and considered a small city; Abu Ghraib was known as a relatively safe prison. It surprised everyone when pictures of bruised and degraded P.O.W.s (prisoners of war) suddenly appeared all over the internet. This raised question of what the officials were doing to their prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Everything that has happened at the prison is a major debate among highly ranked officials. How badly were they treated? Why were the prisoners treated the way they were? How did the officials let this happen? How did this treatment of the soldiers affect them after they were released? What happened after the abuse? All of these questions are frequently asked but never answered. The prisoners that were there would have never expected to be abused. At times the abuse getting so bad that some of the prisoners have been said to say,” they would rather be in a prison that belongs to Saddam Hussein.” The pictures show United States soldiers positioning the prisoners in very degrading positions, some even giving thumbs up in the background. In some very rare cases men were even being killed. In pictures photographers showed the Iraqi prisoners being treated like animals! [| Men in cages being ridiculed], forced to lay in certain positions, and being talked down to. In some cases they even used dogs to scare the Iraqi P.O.W.s. The men in these prisons are in there for the same exact thing, abusing and killing other people. The United States soldiers never went so far as to kill but they have abused some of these men so badly they will never be the same again. A question that comes to mind when many people think of the abuse is why were the prisoners treated in this manner? The main reason this happened if you ask the men and women working there is it was the confusion. No one knew who was in charge. Different officers were claiming and acting like they were in charge. So different soldiers went to different officers to get commands. Sometimes many of the soldiers were doing the same job. The prison was in a state of chaos. So when the men and women there were told to interrogate the POWs, they went to extremes. They bruised, beat, and took the dignity of some of these men. All for interrogation! The Unites States was in such need of helpful information that they were willing to do whatever it took to get truthful answers. If that meant torturing and abusing Iraqi prisoners, they let it happen. The point at first was to get helpful information, but the soldiers at Abu Ghraib took it way to far. Some of the men and women doing this to these P.O.W.s said that they meant no harm, it was never meant to get this far. They didn’t realize it would go so far to tarnish the American name overseas. Now instead of making progress in the Middle East we must rebuild our name. We must get them to trust us and see that not all Americans are like the ones that tortured and abused the prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Many U.S. citizens are thinking how did the officials in charge let this happen? A statement made by Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski claims that the Officials at Abu Ghraib told the United States government of the abuse. They also told them of the shortage of soldiers employed at the prison, and the lack of supplies like flood lights, fences, and other supplies the soldiers need to protect them selves. But they were flicked off the shoulder of the government like a pesky fly. The government had far more important things to worry about according to Joan Walsh of Salon.com. They had to deal with insurgents, car bombs, and innocent American soldiers getting killed. The abuse of what they thought were 2 or possibly 3 Iraqi P.O.W.s wasn’t as big of a situation or deserve their attention at the moment. They didn’t understand the urgency of the situation. It didn’t hit them that thousands of Iraqi P.O.W.s were being abused by American Soldiers until hundreds of pictures and videos were shown as evidence. Once the government was informed they began prosecuting the many men and women involved. “As of today they have to yet to prosecute any highly ranked officials,” as said by Joan Walsh. The blame for the Abu Ghraib prison abuse is equally split. The government should have investigated in more closely, and the officials at the prison should have tried harder to stop the abuse. Both neglected what needed to be done to help the prisoners, so both parties are to blame. After the release of the Iraqi prisoners many of them who were abuse became ghost like. They were disgraced in what had happened to them and ashamed in how they were treated. Most were treated for injuries and required psychiatric help also. In essence all just seemed to be bodies and the souls gone, taken by U.S. soldiers. These people are still trying to forget what happened to them and continue on with their lives. [|Also some on their way out of the prison had said that they were detained for no reason, one even goes so far as to say that he was detained for having a camera phone. He was accused of video taping and taking pictures of the American soldiers.] This shows how unjust the American soldiers in Iraq could be. They took many Iraqis into the prison that were normal everyday people. The soldiers abused them for answers most of them didn’t have. They bruised them, brought disgrace down upon them, and took months and sometimes years away from their friends and loved ones. It has been years since we first saw the horrifying pictures from Abu Ghraib. The realization of this nightmare still lingers in our head today. For the people who caused this nightmare, it won’t end soon enough. All though the low ranking officials have been prosecuted, there are still others waiting to be or are being prosecuted as written by Jackie Northham. She also said that there may be a higher ranked official being charged, one that would have been in charge and overseen everything that went on at Abu Ghraib. Now that this controversy has settled down, the people now working at Abu Ghraib can make progress. They are concentrating on correcting the interrogation methods that were used by the men and women who used to work there. They are also trying to gain back the trust of the Iraqi people they work with and that live around them. Also the government is keeping a closer watch on what in going on. If there is suspicion of anything of a serious matter, like abuse, the government now trys to go investigate it immediately. The reason the government did not want this to get out is because it would damage the American reputation overseas and make helping Iraq get on its feet so much harder. The troops were having enough problems overseas as it was, but adding the weight of a scandal would make it near impossible to make and progress in Iraq. The more trust we can get and the more we can build up the American name, only helps the country of Iraq and its people get closer to functioning on their own again. After all of the pictures, videos, and stories we have heard and seen from inside the walls at Abu Ghraib, the people involved just want to forget what has happened. They have had their trials, gotten over the nightmares, and erased the pictures of the abuse from their minds. Although all of this has happened, nothing will ever be the same for the people that live through that terrifying event. They will never forget the pain, disgrace, and hatred they felt for the soldiers that did this to them. For the Iraqis this will go down in history as one of the most horrible things that has come out of this war. Their minds are marked with the thought that no American can be trusted. This however is the fault of the officials and the government workers who knew about this. They are just as guilty as the perpetrators who actually committed the abuse at the prison. Abu Ghraib is one of the highest crimes America has committed in trying to help Iraq and it will take years to recover from, but we are taking action to correct our wrongdoing.

Works Cited

"Abu Ghurayb Prison." __Global Security.Org__. 1 May 2006. 07 May 2008 .

"Abuse of Iraqi POWs by GIs Probed." CBS. 28 Apr. 2004. 24 Apr. 2008 .

Bowden, Mark. "Lessons of Abu Ghraib: the photographs were shocking--but the disturbing reality is that for some people they clearly weren't." __The Atlantic Monthly__ 294.1 (July-August 2004): 37(2). __Opposing__ __Viewpoints__ __Resource__  __Center__. Gale. Seton High School. 23 Apr. 2008 .

Hersh, Seymour M. "Torture At Abu Ghraib." __The New Yorker__. 4 May 2004. 07 May 2008 . Nordland, Rod, John (Irish bishop) Barry, Melinda Liu, and Babak Dehghanpisheh. "Rough Justice in  Iraq   ; Exclusive: As alarming details surface in a growing prisoner-abuse scandal, the   U.S.   general who was in charge talks about what went wrong." __Newsweek__ (  May 10, 2004   ): 26. __Opposing__ __ Viewpoints __   __ Resource __   __ Center __. Gale. Seton    High School. 22 Apr. 2008 . __Out of Abu Ghraib__. 2006. __CNN VIdeo__. 07 May 2008 . Pound, Edward T, and Kit R. Roane. "Hell On Earth.(prisoner abuse and breakdown of military command at Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq)." //U.S. News & World Report.// 137. 2 (July 19, 2004): 10. //Opposing// //Viewpoints// //Resource// //Center//. Gale. Seton High School. 24 Apr. 2008 . __Prisoners Subjected to 'Mock Executions' - Photographs of Detainees Being Sexually Humiliated__. 2005. UK Guardian. __Indybay__. 07 May 2008 . "Two Years After Abu Ghraib, Abuse Reports Linger.(  8:00-9:00 PM   )(Broadcast transcript)(Audio file)." __All Things Considered__ (  April 26, 2006   ): NA. __Opposing__ __ Viewpoints __   __ Resource __   __ Center __. Gale. Seton    High School. 7 May 2008 . Walsh, Joan. "The Abu Ghraib Files." __Salon.Com__. May 2008. 07 May 2008 .