Editorial: Soldiers’ alleged acts further taint U.S. name

Thugs, perverts, sadists ““ words used to characterize
Saddam, Uday and Qusay Hussein can now also describe United States
soldiers accused of cruelly abusing Iraqi prisoners of war.

There are important distinctions between the alleged acts of
U.S. soldiers on Iraqi prisoners and the centralized policies of
torture and terror of the Hussein regime. But nonetheless, the fact
that a comparison between these soldiers and Saddam’s
Baathists can be drawn at all ““ and it can be ““ is
frightening.

U.S. soldiers guilty of abuse are more than bad apples. They are
the shame of their nation.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, the United States has claimed
responsibility ““ sometimes unilaterally ““ to fight not
only against terrorism and dictatorships but for freedom and human
rights. Indeed, supporters of the Iraq war ““ bearing no
evidence of Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction or
ties to terrorism ““ continue to defend the invasion because
it led to the removal of the “Butcher of Baghdad,” a
first-class thug whose violations of human rights were of the worst
sort.

Tragically, the methods of the man the United States disposed
appear to be in use today.

One photo from Iraq shows a prisoner standing on a box. His
fingers are attached to cords and he has a bag over his head. The
prisoner was reportedly told (falsely) that if he fell off the box
he would be electrocuted. Other photos show human pyramids of naked
Iraqi prisoners. Both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times
reported that other prisoners were forced to masturbate while being
photographed or videotaped.

The L.A. Times reported that Army Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba
wrote of “numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant and wanton
criminal abuses” in a military document that was intended to
remain private.

While the incidents now appear less random and more systematic
than President Bush and Pentagon brass originally acknowledged, it
is still true that such abuse does not reflect the wants of either
the United States government or military.

But it will be hard to convince much of the world of this truth.
Suffering from a lack of free media and decades worth of anti-U.S.
bias in its educational institutions, the Arab world in particular
may not realize that the abuse was a break from U.S. policy, not an
extension of it.

Thus, the U.S. soldiers accused of abuse have made the already
incredibly hard challenge of improving world opinion of the United
States nearly impossible. In that sense, they have undermined U.S.
interests and hurt its ability to fight the spread of
terrorism.

No matter one’s feelings about war, the willingness of
military personnel to face death in order to serve their country is
admirable. War is something that people cannot understand unless
they have taken part in it.

But however tortuous battle is, acts of cruelty and sadism must
never be forgiven. Perpetrators of these acts should be locked away
for long periods of time.

Hopefully the rest of the country can move ahead without them,
repairing its self-identity and international credibility.