Story - Abu Ghraib
When I first heard about the atrocities that took place in Abu Ghraib, my first response was not surprise. I’d recently been exposed to some of the more profound pictures that were produced from the Vietnam War, some truly disturbing exhibits of humanity, and had already become somewhat desensitized to the darker side of this ruthless game of life. War brings out the worst of everyone involved, regardless of their ability to cope with their current situation. The people that were handling the prison were not in any way designed or trained for the responsibilities that were bestowed upon them, so it’s not that surprising they turned to methods of torture.
To really understand why the soldiers, those who are fighting for a concept of freedom, could loose touch with humanity to an extent where they took pleasure in torturing people, one must really understand what they are fighting for-The American idea of freedom. To examine this idea one should look at what it was founded on. America has been bigoted society since its birth. Most people don’t really stop and think about the fact that our culture was founded on genocide and slavery. I think this is a pretty profound fact when you stop and look at it fully. The founders of this culture destroyed an entire way of life in pursuit of their own. That way of life was then built on the backs and graves of others. Genocide and slavery are the American backbone; it’s what birthed the American idea of freedom.
So, with this is mind, we should now look at how this mentality has evolved since the laws state that genocide is illegal along with slavery. With no one to do the dirty work and no one left to oppress our way of life on our own soil, it’s very easy to look beyond the shoreline to find a new type of oppressor, especially when that oppressor brings their conflict onto American soil. The rage that America was founded on, the mentality that people need to move out of our way for our way of life, had a vibrant focal point after 9/11. The government and pop culture encouraged this rage by pointing the way with the American flag, the national anthem, while holding up a fearless leader that the everyday all-American-Joe can relate to on most levels. The American people were given a focused aggression.
A common American mentality is based on extreme arrogance, to the point of not being able to recognize it. This country is separated in such a unique way from the rest of the world. America covers an entire stretch of land from one ocean to another with only a quiet, peaceful country above it, and a laidback, substance providing country below it, that separates the United Stated from any real war, extreme poverty, and brutal living conditions that arise in Central America and South America. It’s easy to sit in this country, completely isolated, not just geographically from any real form of widespread suffering, but also technologically, as the America media tends to only perpetuate the us v/s them mentality. If a child was only allowed to see books that had red covers their entire upbringing, while being told directly and indirectly that books with blue covers were an inferior type of literature, it’s easy to imagine what would happen when that child grew up and came into contact with a book with a blue cover. They would shun it in anyway that their upbringing and morals allowed them to deem acceptable.
Now to look at the Iraqi people who are living in a completely different type of government. They don’t have the abundant electricity, high speed internet, suburbs and condos, and definitely not the same religion as a great deal of Americans pampers themselves in each day. Because of all these vast difference, it’s easy to separate us from them. Iraq before 9/11 was simply a casualty of the gulf war, barely recognizable in the news, and not really a focal point for any collective aggression. However, after that day, and after the media and the government helped to focus the attention away from a man named Bin Laden, who no one really knew before, and onto a country governed by Saddam Hussein, a man whose name the people had already been instructed to despise, it was easy to grasp that Iraq was filled with people to hate. So, with this new conditioned awareness, America did what it has done in the past with those who differ and who pose a threat to their way of life. They kill them and they enslave them.
Looking at the soldiers’ lives before they preformed the horrendous torturing it can be assessed that they were unprepared for the shock of having that much control over so many people’s lives they did not respect. They had no real background in managing such a place with a preset negative atmosphere. The soldiers did not see the people they were assigned to as people at all, but rather forms of entertainment; animals performing tricks. They had been trained by the government to protect a way of life that they believed the prisoners of Abu Ghraib threatened. Being put into a situation where they had little to no fear of punishment and free rang to carry out their idea of discipline and punishment, it’s not hard to grasp that they would no longer see the captives as people, at least not believe they were people deserving of basic human rights.
When the news broke, the basic reaction of the American people was absolute shock and disgust. It was horrifying for people to imagine that such atrocities could be preformed by soldiers of the United States military; soldiers that were representing and fighting for the freedom that so many people tend to not only take for granted, but ignore how it was achieved. However, the general attitude was that these soldiers had gone insane. Most people pointed out how wonderful they were before they went to Iraq-good law abiding Americans. Because of this, it was easy to isolate the soldiers from the military as a fluke of nature. Their mentality was not a common one; in fact, it was merely one that was triggered by the harsh reality of war and the already present conditions at Abu Ghraib. The United States military could not be held accountable for the actions of a few solders.
Because their was so much pity involved for the prisoners of Abu Ghraib, and this conflicted with so much hate for the insurgents and the terrorists that Americans believed were flooding the lands of Iraq, the prisons were also segregated from the populace. They were treated unjustly on such a scale that most people accepted that these acts preformed on them were truly inhuman and therefore the prisoners must now be recognized as human. Americans still had a great deal of fixed hate in their minds toward the people of Iraq, and so the prisoners of Abu Ghraib because just as separate from the country as the solders who tortured them were from the military. This mental separation allows everyday Americans to still admire and support the military’s daily slaughter of the Iraq people, while still maintaining some type of personal sense of integrity towards human life.
Interestingly enough, if people would stop and look at the actions of these terrorists against the American military, they would notice amazing similarities between their methods of protecting their way of life against us, and the way America protected their way of life against the British. However, the mentality of us v/s them would first have to be eradicated. For that to take place people will have to start looking at the entire picture, instead of just what they want to see.
To really understand why the soldiers, those who are fighting for a concept of freedom, could loose touch with humanity to an extent where they took pleasure in torturing people, one must really understand what they are fighting for-The American idea of freedom. To examine this idea one should look at what it was founded on. America has been bigoted society since its birth. Most people don’t really stop and think about the fact that our culture was founded on genocide and slavery. I think this is a pretty profound fact when you stop and look at it fully. The founders of this culture destroyed an entire way of life in pursuit of their own. That way of life was then built on the backs and graves of others. Genocide and slavery are the American backbone; it’s what birthed the American idea of freedom.
So, with this is mind, we should now look at how this mentality has evolved since the laws state that genocide is illegal along with slavery. With no one to do the dirty work and no one left to oppress our way of life on our own soil, it’s very easy to look beyond the shoreline to find a new type of oppressor, especially when that oppressor brings their conflict onto American soil. The rage that America was founded on, the mentality that people need to move out of our way for our way of life, had a vibrant focal point after 9/11. The government and pop culture encouraged this rage by pointing the way with the American flag, the national anthem, while holding up a fearless leader that the everyday all-American-Joe can relate to on most levels. The American people were given a focused aggression.
A common American mentality is based on extreme arrogance, to the point of not being able to recognize it. This country is separated in such a unique way from the rest of the world. America covers an entire stretch of land from one ocean to another with only a quiet, peaceful country above it, and a laidback, substance providing country below it, that separates the United Stated from any real war, extreme poverty, and brutal living conditions that arise in Central America and South America. It’s easy to sit in this country, completely isolated, not just geographically from any real form of widespread suffering, but also technologically, as the America media tends to only perpetuate the us v/s them mentality. If a child was only allowed to see books that had red covers their entire upbringing, while being told directly and indirectly that books with blue covers were an inferior type of literature, it’s easy to imagine what would happen when that child grew up and came into contact with a book with a blue cover. They would shun it in anyway that their upbringing and morals allowed them to deem acceptable.
Now to look at the Iraqi people who are living in a completely different type of government. They don’t have the abundant electricity, high speed internet, suburbs and condos, and definitely not the same religion as a great deal of Americans pampers themselves in each day. Because of all these vast difference, it’s easy to separate us from them. Iraq before 9/11 was simply a casualty of the gulf war, barely recognizable in the news, and not really a focal point for any collective aggression. However, after that day, and after the media and the government helped to focus the attention away from a man named Bin Laden, who no one really knew before, and onto a country governed by Saddam Hussein, a man whose name the people had already been instructed to despise, it was easy to grasp that Iraq was filled with people to hate. So, with this new conditioned awareness, America did what it has done in the past with those who differ and who pose a threat to their way of life. They kill them and they enslave them.
Looking at the soldiers’ lives before they preformed the horrendous torturing it can be assessed that they were unprepared for the shock of having that much control over so many people’s lives they did not respect. They had no real background in managing such a place with a preset negative atmosphere. The soldiers did not see the people they were assigned to as people at all, but rather forms of entertainment; animals performing tricks. They had been trained by the government to protect a way of life that they believed the prisoners of Abu Ghraib threatened. Being put into a situation where they had little to no fear of punishment and free rang to carry out their idea of discipline and punishment, it’s not hard to grasp that they would no longer see the captives as people, at least not believe they were people deserving of basic human rights.
When the news broke, the basic reaction of the American people was absolute shock and disgust. It was horrifying for people to imagine that such atrocities could be preformed by soldiers of the United States military; soldiers that were representing and fighting for the freedom that so many people tend to not only take for granted, but ignore how it was achieved. However, the general attitude was that these soldiers had gone insane. Most people pointed out how wonderful they were before they went to Iraq-good law abiding Americans. Because of this, it was easy to isolate the soldiers from the military as a fluke of nature. Their mentality was not a common one; in fact, it was merely one that was triggered by the harsh reality of war and the already present conditions at Abu Ghraib. The United States military could not be held accountable for the actions of a few solders.
Because their was so much pity involved for the prisoners of Abu Ghraib, and this conflicted with so much hate for the insurgents and the terrorists that Americans believed were flooding the lands of Iraq, the prisons were also segregated from the populace. They were treated unjustly on such a scale that most people accepted that these acts preformed on them were truly inhuman and therefore the prisoners must now be recognized as human. Americans still had a great deal of fixed hate in their minds toward the people of Iraq, and so the prisoners of Abu Ghraib because just as separate from the country as the solders who tortured them were from the military. This mental separation allows everyday Americans to still admire and support the military’s daily slaughter of the Iraq people, while still maintaining some type of personal sense of integrity towards human life.
Interestingly enough, if people would stop and look at the actions of these terrorists against the American military, they would notice amazing similarities between their methods of protecting their way of life against us, and the way America protected their way of life against the British. However, the mentality of us v/s them would first have to be eradicated. For that to take place people will have to start looking at the entire picture, instead of just what they want to see.
posted by ~Allie~ @ 7:54 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home