Keeping the Promise

Where was indignation during Hussein's regime? - hollow outrage is little more than a pantomime

Revulsion at the revelations of prisoner abuse by U.S. forces in Iraq has spread faster than hot sand in the desert wind. No one has expressed the outrage with more horror than the American people. No one, that is, except the leaders of the Arab world.

Nothing will ever justify the actions of those charged with watching over the prisoners, and both Americans and Arabs are fully justified in their disgust. If the deeds of the jailers were not so sickening and its consequences not so disastrous, however, the reaction of some Arab leaders would qualify as humorous.

Among those expressing shock and horror at the very thought of prisoner mistreatment are governments whose use of torture is routine, in countries where human-rights organizations have repeatedly reported the torture of prisoners is ''endemic'' and ``widespread.''

Should the United States be held to a higher standard? You bet. This is one case where the double standard is justified, because U.S. forces entered Iraq on a mission deliberately hued with high moral goals.

And yet, when dictatorships that have stayed in power for decades show themselves shocked -- shocked! -- at the mere idea that a prisoner might be mistreated, there is little question that the hollow outrage is little more than a pantomime.

Throughout the Arab world -- from Saudi Arabia to Egypt and Syria, countries where a call for democracy can land you in jail -- government officials and regime-controlled newspapers have spoken of their deep disgust at what they have seen.

Amr Mousa, the secretary general of the Arab League and former foreign minister of Egypt, declared his ''shock and disgust'' at the ''shameful images'' of the naked prisoners. Yet, somehow, the shock and disgust eluded him during his many years in the service of a government that to this day, according to major international human-rights organizations, tortures opponents.

Perhaps it was the nakedness, which we are repeatedly told has brought so much consternation to the sensitivities of the Arab people. There are, to be sure, cultural differences between the Arab world and the West. According to Human Rights Watch, for example, homosexual men have been entrapped, arrested and tortured by Egyptian security forces.

Syrian government newspapers, reporting on the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners also expressed horror, if not shock, because they already expected the worst from Americans. That from a country with a decades-old dictatorship that has killed thousands upon thousands of its own citizens and where just three months ago a local group reported that political prisoners in government custody suffer unspeakable treatment that often leads to serious injury or death.

Torture of prisoners is hardly shocking in many Arab countries, no matter what leaders with a newfound love for human rights now proclaim. In fact, the same governments that today so deeply feel the suffering of Iraqi prisoners found little to complain about in the grotesque abuses of Saddam Hussein's regime. The techniques that left hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in mass graves and kept torture chambers stained with human blood did not cause much consternation among Arab leaders.

We hold Western democracies to humanitarian and democratic principles, as we should. But regimes that use torture as a normal part of their efforts to keep their stranglehold in power, as do many in the Middle East, are highlighting their own violations by speaking out against the outrages at Abu Ghraib.

Frida Ghitis writes about world affairs.

Link

Bushite
"But just a decade or two ago, the same groups stood by while hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were dumped into mass graves. They even supplied Saddam with lethal chemicals subsequently used against the local population."

Yes, the USA govt. of Raygun and Bush 1 are guilty of the above.

Bush 1 encouraged the Shi'ites to overthrow Saddam and when they tried to do so Bush 1 did not do a damn thing to help them. Republicans are shameless, sociopathic,warmongering greedy war profiteering scum and a cancer on the nation of America that used to be a Democracy until both the Republicans and Democrats decided to feed full time on the Oligarchy trough.

Although no one likes to admit it and although we prefer to believe ourselves civilised, the ill-treatment, abuse and torture of our own suspects and prisoners has been commonplace across America for decades. The fact that, amongst the innocent, many arrested are considered by society to be human scum, should never justify widespread illegal atrocities against them.

Nevertheless, before the invasion, the President promised to replace the Saddam regime with American Democracy.

Surely, in respect of Iraqi detainees, he has already delivered his greatest achievement?

John Webb

I honestly don't believe that you are right that it is common practice to either phyically or sexually abuse prisoners in our country in order to get information or just for the fun of it. I think that if that were true, people would be up in arms and the scandal would run for months. The liberals (of which I am one) would be hollering like crazy. We would probably end up going the other way again where we try and understand criminals instead of being so trigger happy.