[ga] Humiliating photos are symptomatic of a greater problem

[Ibelimited1@xxxxxxx]

Dear All
The article below out of the Jordanian Times  portrays a position and an 
opinion that I agree with 100%. And as an  Arab American I am saddened to say that 
the strongest nation on earth will  once again show no interest in learning 
from its own  mistakes.  
When you lie to the American people and sell them on  a war and an invade 
another country for the wrong  reasons.... you should not be shocked nor 
surprised.  
The questions we must ask are:
A- who are really responsible for  this?
B- and whose heads must role as a  result?
Not the soldiers alone if justice is to be  served.
Many might remember the movie "A few good men"  with Tom Cruise and Jack 
Nicholson.   Draw you own conclusions.   
You will understand when you read the  article.
If you think this is unrelated to Internet issues,  think again and harder.
regards
Khaled  Fattal
MINC Chairman and  CEO

 (http://www.jordantimes.com/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/fri/opinion/opinion5.htm/map) 
  
      
Humiliating photos are symptomatic of a greater problem 
By Sherri Muzher       As photos of the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners of war 
 (PoWs) were released, people around the world expressed outrage and shock.   
As an Arab-American, I can understand the outrage, but it's the shock I  
don't get. When pop culture conditions people to believe that Arabs are  sub-human 
and when troops go to war under the premise that they are going  to punish 
those responsible for Sept. 11, these kinds of activities are  waiting to 
happen.  
And those troops who gleefully humiliated and sexually abused the Iraqi  PoWs 
just happened to be caught. There are likely more with that type of  
mentality, regardless of what the president says.  
A 53-page internal army report recently prepared by Major General  Antonio 
Taguba found that Iraqi detainees were subjected to âsadistic,  blatant and 
wanton criminal abusesâ at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.  According to the 
report, abuses included detainees being beaten with a  broom handle and one 
sodomised with âa chemical light and perhaps a broom  stckâ.  
Most bewildering are the ridiculous excuses by the six soldiers who are  
being investigated. They and their lawyers say that the troops weren't  given 
rules or didn't know the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the  Treatment of 
PoWs. Most people don't know the wording of the Fourth Geneva  Convention, but 
those same people surely must know that placing wires on  someone's genitalia 
with the idea of electrocuting that person is wrong.  That's called human 
decency.  
Military experts have been interviewed on different networks, and many  have 
said that while the pictures are appalling, the Fourth Geneva  Convention has 
not been violated. But, Article 13 of Part I clearly  states: âLikewise, 
prisoners of war must at all times be protected,  particularly against acts of 
violence or intimidation and against insults  and public curiosity.â  
Keep in mind that the Fourth Geneva Convention was repeatedly invoked  by the 
Bush administration and experts when some American PoWs were  captured and 
shon on Al Jazeera last year. They were not stripped naked  nor were they forced 
to simulate sex acts.  
What's sad is that future American PoWs will likely pay the price for  the 
repulsive choices of some of their brethren in the military. Everybody  in the 
Middle East has seen the photographs and even those who have been  supportive 
of US efforts in Iraq are going to shrug when the Fourth Geneva  Convention is 
likely to be violated by Iraqis in the future as payback â  unless the troops 
in question are severely punished.  
Ghazi Mashal Ajil Al Yawer, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council  told the 
Associated Press that the perpetrators must be punished âas war  criminalsâ 
because âthe dignity of an Iraqi citizen is no less than the  dignity of an 
Americanâ.  
And that's the point of it all: nobody's humanity is greater than  anyone 
else's. When the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is covered by the  media, 
Palestinian deaths rarely warrant the type of breaking news or  breathless coverage 
that Israli deaths get. Now, the same type of  situation is being repeated in 
Iraq. The Fourth Geneva Convention gets  repeatedly mentioned when American 
troops are captured, but when Iraqis  prisoners are abused, many experts say that 
the convention does not apply.   
It has always been difficult being an Arab American, and yes, the  insults of 
âsand niggerâ and âcamel jockeyâ came well before Sept. 11.  Watch Bugs 
Bunny or Popeye with your kids, and you will find that Arabs  have always been 
portrayed as the bad guys. This decades-long  dehumanisation of Arabs in pop 
culture has made it easier to place Arab  Americans, as well as Muslim Americans, 
as targets.  
Americans are prone to ask: âWhy do they hate us so much?â Well, Arabs  
wonder the same about Americans.  
Ultimately, it would be unfair to blame the entire military for the  acts of 
a few and I know that many act honourably despite their personal  feelings. 
However, I don't see too many people bothering to distinguish  between the 19 
hijackes and the 350 million Arabs whose only concern is  to work hard and put 
bread on the table or to create better futures for  their kids.  
It's not fun to be generalised, is it?  
The writer is a media analyst and writer for Middle East Affairs in  Mason, 
MI. She contributed this article to The Jordan Times.  
Friday-Saturday, May 7-8,  2004