May 11,
2004
Abuse in Iraqi Prisons Does Not Justify Rumsfeld's Ouster
By Mort
Kondracke
The abuse of Iraqi prisoners that is now coming to light was
without a doubt despicable, abhorrent and illegal. But on the
basis of presently known facts, these events do not justify the
ouster of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld nor the political
frenzy it has caused in Washington.
This was not the My Lai massacre, in which U.S. troops butchered
hundreds of innocent Vietnamese civilians in 1968. And, contrary
to the charges by Democrats screaming for Rumsfeld's scalp, the
scandal at Abu Ghraib prison was not "covered up."
U.S. authorities have launched at least five investigations
into treatment of captives in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo
Bay. Charges have been filed against some abusers. Officers have
been relieved of command. The investigations and charges were
announced in March, and stories were written about them in U.S.
newspapers.
What triggered the tornado of controversy about Abu Ghraib was
the publication of pictures depicting the abuses and a leak of
the classified official report on the investigation.
Since then, the response of the Bush administration has been
anything but a shrug. Abject apologies have been issued from military
authorities in Iraq, from Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell,
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and, finally, President
Bush.
Investigations are ongoing and, if abuse of detainees is proved
to have been routine or inspired by high-level policy, it's certain
that heads will roll, as they should. If it's called for, even
Rumsfeld's job should be at risk. But it isn't yet.
Rumsfeld's leadership of the Iraq war effort has certainly been
flawed, especially in his underestimation of post-war difficulties
and costs. He has needlessly offended foreign countries. On the
other hand, Iraq is largely his war - as well as Bush's and Vice
President Cheney's - and, barring evidence of misconduct, he should
be kept on to finish the job he started.
One major failure that the prison scandal exposes is the Bush
administration's inability to communicate to the Iraqi people,
the Arab world, international opinion and even Americans what
horrific brutalities the United States ended when it toppled Saddam
Hussein and what progress the U.S.-led occupation has made in
Iraqi reconstruction.
The administration has been unable to counter impressions of
what's happening in Iraq that are transmitted by a largely hostile
media - from Al Jazeera to the BBC and even much of the U.S. media
in Iraq, which concentrate on the negative. Americans know only
in the most general sense about the mass graves - containing 130,000
bodies so far - of persons executed under Hussein's regime.
A few networks have aired grainy pictures from Hussein's files
of persons having their tongues cut out, being thrown from buildings
and being shot, but the administration has made no concerted effort
- either before the war or after - to offer a humanitarian case
for the war.
The world needs to be reminded - again and again - that Hussein's
secret police were rewarded for torturing, raping, humiliating
and murdering victims by the thousands.
This doesn't excuse the hooding and sexual humiliation inflicted
by American soldiers, and it certainly it does not excuse deaths
that may have been caused in some cases. But it deserves attention
to fix U.S. behavior in a more realistic context.
At least part of the horror being expressed in the United States
now stems from the reading - perhaps correct, perhaps not - that
the Abu Ghraib pictures will inflame opinion in the Arab world
against the United States.
But as Johns Hopkins University professor Fouad Ajami pointed
out on PBS' "Newshour with Jim Lehrer" last week, the Arab media
are perpetually inflaming hatred against the United States. The
abuse controversy is merely new fuel for that long-burning fire.
Moreover, there is no evidence as yet of any mass uprising in
the "Arab street" - no riots, no embassies sacked - as a result
of publication of the Abu Ghraib pictures.
The United States should set a context by publicizing the grim
reality of conditions in Arab prisons.
Who's ever heard of a Human Rights Watch report revealing that
Egyptian police routinely round up homeless children who "in police
custody face beatings, sexual abuse and extortion by police and
adult criminal suspects, and police routinely deny them access
to food, bedding and medical care"?
Surely Americans should be held to a higher standard than Arab
countries, especially when we claim to be bringing democracy to
the Middle East. And in fact the United States is indeed observing
a higher standard: When abuses occur, we investigate them, punish
them and apologize for them.
Last week, in an interview with Al Jazeera, Rice pointed out
that American troops were sacrificing their lives to improve the
lot of the Iraqi people. Yet both she and the administration have
all but failed to get out word about what's been done.
Members of Congress are regularly furnished with "Iraq Status"
reports featuring statistics on electricity generation, oil production,
schools and hospitals opened, and security forces trained. But
this information rarely filters to the public at large.
Justifiably, Rumsfeld received a scolding last week for failing
to give Bush and Congress a heads-up about the soon-to-be-released
Abu Ghraib photos. But he doesn't deserve sacking. Yet.
