New jailers, same prison?
By RAMESH THAKUR
Special to The Japan Times
The stage-managed toppling of ex-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's statue will not,
after all, be the image defining the Iraq war. Like the famous photo of the young girl
on fire running naked to escape the horror of napalm in the Vietnam War, the
photographs emerging from Abu Ghraib prison will be the icons defining this most
ill-advised and ill-planned war. They have managed to combine everything that is most
depraved in victors by inflicting the worst possible humiliations and indignity in the
Arab world: the grotesque pyramid of naked bodies in suggestive poses while soldiers
ham it up for the camera; a woman guard with a naked prisoner on a leash; forcing men
in hoods to kneel before the guards in the presence of their wives and children.
The inhuman cruelty is exceeded only by incompetence beyond belief. The conquerors
have sunk to the same level of depravity as the thugs they sought to displace. Yet the
reactions within America also point to the fallacy of imposing moral equivalence
between Hussein's regime and the U.S. administration.
It is worth making four arguments:
The abuses are not isolated incidents, but reflect a systemic malaise.
The abuses flow from the backdrop and manner of going to war.
Also on display have been the self-correcting mechanisms of a great and enduring
democracy.
The need for a constructive cleanup of the Iraq mess is more urgent than ever.
In an article immediately after "9/11," I wrote: "To defeat the terrorists, it is
absolutely critical that the symbolism of America -- not just the home of the free and
the land of the brave, but the bastion of liberty, freedom, equality between citizens
and rulers, democracy and respect for law -- be kept alive." Moreover, "Just as
America is a nation of laws that find expression in institutions, so Americans should
work to construct a world of laws functioning through international institutions" (The
Japan Times, Sept. 16, 2001).
In another article I highlighted the contradictions between the goals being pursued in
Iraq and the methods used to reach them. I questioned how it is possible to achieve
victory in the war on international terrorism directed at American targets by inciting
a deeper hatred of U.S. foreign policy around the world, and how democracy and the
rule of law could be promoted in Iraq by undermining respect for international law and
curtailing civil liberties within the U.S. (June 1, 2003).
Elaborating on the theme in a public lecture last month, I said: "The implications of
Guantanamo Bay (Cuba) are so revolutionary, so far-reaching and so frightening that
they are worth underlining." In effect the United States asserted the right to be able
to "pick up foreign citizens anywhere in the world, spirit them off to Guantanamo and
lock them up forever, with no court questioning its actions" (David Cole, The Nation,
Dec. 8, 2003). The main purpose was to take the prisoners beyond the reach of any law
that could protect them.
Moreover, emboldened by the curtailment of civil liberties in the bastion of
democracy, many other governments have appropriated the language of the war on terror
to wage their own wars on domestic dissidents. Now we learn of how Macedonia killed a
group of Pakistani immigrants in cold blood in 2002 to impress upon Washington the
sincerity of their commitment to the war on terror.
This is why Abu Ghraib is a logical and predictable outcome of the consistent and
repeated pattern of abuse of human rights in violation of international conventions
and norms, based on a cavalier dismissal of centuries-old legal principles to protect
prisoners from abuse at the hands of captors and guards.
Over the last few years, hubris has grown as Washington became openly dismissive of
many international regimes, including arms control, climate change and international
criminal justice. When U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrogates the right to
determine unilaterally the status of captured people and their proper treatment, and
then dismisses allegations of mistreatment and torture with "stuff happens"; when
captives (many subsequently confirmed to be innocent) are handed over for
interrogation to regimes where torture is known to be practiced: Should ordinary
soldiers be faulted for concluding that their prisoners -- who must be guilty,
otherwise they wouldn't be prisoners, right? -- are subhuman scum unworthy of being
treated like human beings?
Worse is to root this in the war itself. The restraints of international law on waging
war were pushed aside as mere inconveniences. Soldiers were ordered to war on the
basis of falsehoods, no matter how sincerely believed. They were asked not just to
die, but to kill. The administration misled them and the public into identifying the
Iraqi regime with "9/11," the thirst for vengeance for which is yet to be sated.
Should we be surprised if some soldiers square their conscience by concluding that the
enemy is subhuman? How else to account for the killing of 300 to 600 Fallujahns,
including many innocent women and children, in vengeance for four Americans who were
killed and mutilated? When leaders exempt themselves from the norms of international
behavior, a few foot soldiers will free themselves from the norms of civilized
conduct.
And yet. It is Americans who led the world in publishing the pictures, reacting to
them as a society with revulsion and deep disgust, conducting an anguished debate in
the opinion columns and shows, promising a due accounting and justice for the
perpetrators, and issuing apologies from the president down. Were that other countries
could match them in such swift and honest introspection. I hope the lights shining in
the city on the hill -- a powerful symbol for millions of us from and in developing
countries whose significance sadly escapes too many Americans -- are not extinguished
in my lifetime, if ever.
In the meantime, we do have a mess on our hands. Iraqi transition, reconstruction and
nation-building cannot be allowed to fail, not after everything that has happened. The
United Nations has expertise, credibility and legitimacy in reintegration of former
combatants, reconciliation of former enemies and reconstruction of war-torn societies.
Genuine control and authority needs to be transferred to the world body, for surely
the U.S. now has passed irretrievably into the enemy camp as far as Iraqis are
concerned. The damage to U.S. credibility and image in the Arab and Islamic world will
take at least a generation to recover; Iraq's recovery must start now. Time for the
surreal coalition of the willing to hand over charge to the real international
community.
The whole sorry episode also underlines the urgent need for the International Criminal
Court's jurisdiction to cover the international military actions of all countries
without class distinctions based on wealth and power.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Those in charge of guarding prisoners amid an
ongoing war need to establish and assert absolute control over captives. They do so
under conditions of almost total secrecy. Because the psychological restraints of
ordinary day-to-day living on the urge to sadistic behavior begin to fall away, it is
imperative that control systems be put in place to ensure that the actions and
behavior of captors conform to international conventions and humanitarian law.
Otherwise there will indeed be moral equivalence between the bad and good guys, and
they might as well put up a sign at the entrance saying "Open for business under new
management."
Ramesh Thakur is senior vice rector of United Nations University in Tokyo. These are
his personal views.
The Japan Times: May 15, 2004
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