Iraq Prisoner Abuse: What Went Wrong & Why

 “What you did to the least of my broth­ers you did to me.” (Matthew 25:45) This teach­ing of Christ has helped cre­ate more humane soci­eties through­out his­tory, even in sit­u­a­tions of war and injus­tice. But it has not always been lived, and the con­se­quences can often be terrible.

The recent news of the dis­re­spect and abuse of Iraqi pris­on­ers by Amer­i­can sol­diers has shocked and dis­ap­pointed many peo­ple. In this les­son we will look at the sources of this scan­dal espe­cially the lack of per­sonal moral courage lead­er­ship and the effect of a sex­u­ally promis­cu­ous soci­ety. We will look at the neg­a­tive con­se­quences of the scan­dal, as well as the oppor­tu­nity to face this prob­lem with greater virtue.

Red Cross Report Exposes the Abuse 

 The Inter­na­tional Com­mis­sion of the Red Cross inspects pris­ons to check on whether pris­on­ers are treated accord­ing to stan­dards estab­lished by the Geneva Con­ven­tion.  The Geneva Con­ven­tions, signed in 1949 and updated in 1977, pro­tect sol­diers, civil­ians and pris­on­ers from being mistreated.  

The Red Cross reported that at Ghraib prison, some pris­on­ers were sub­jected to “ill-​​treatments rang­ing from insults and humil­i­a­tion to both phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal coer­cionthat in some cases might amount to tor­ture.” They were held naked in dark and empty cells.  Some pris­on­ers were pho­tographed naked, chained together in humil­i­at­ing posi­tions.   Other pris­on­ers were severely beaten, and chained into “stress positions”.  

Treat­ment like this is below the dig­nity that all human beings deserve as per­sons made in God’s image and loved by him. This fact reminds us that even when we have to enforce jus­tice we should respect the dig­nity of the person. 

Fail­ure of Lead­er­ship Opens the Door to Abuse   

Major Gen­eral Anto­nio Taguba, who was in charge of the inves­ti­ga­tion of the abuses at Abu Ghraib reports that the abuse stems in part from a com­plete lack of lead­er­ship and super­vi­sion, from the gen­eral in charge of the prison down to the com­man­ders within the cell blocks.  Prison com­man­ders and other lead­ers have the respon­si­bil­ity to estab­lish rules ensur­ing proper treat­ment of pris­on­ers, and to then make sure the rules are followed.   

Christ tells Pon­tius Pilate that earthly author­ity comes from God, and yet we see what hap­pened when the Roman leader did not have the moral courage to act with jus­tice and responsibility. 

“It’s not my fault.”

The sol­diers accused of abuse also have per­sonal respon­si­bil­ity, or account­abil­ity, for their own actions. We are respon­si­ble for any sin­ful action when we know what we are doing and choose to do it any­way. The guards were each trained in mil­i­tary law, which pro­hibits the abuse of pris­on­ers.  Some fam­i­lies and friends of the guards have tried to excuse their actions, say­ing that they were going through hard times in Iraq and were sim­ply fol­low­ing orders.  How­ever, no mat­ter how dif­fi­cult the sit­u­a­tion is, we are still always respon­si­ble in being account­able for our choices. 

One woman who sur­vived tor­ture in Guatemala and now lives in the United States reacted when she heard that some peo­ple were try­ing to make excuses for the guards: “Stop it! How can you say that? This is not an excuse. Can’t (the sol­dier) say, ‘No, I will not do this to this per­son’?” There is always a per­sonal choice to be made, and per­sonal con­se­quences to be accepted.

Fear 

The abuse was also allowed to occur due to a lack of moral courage in those abus­ing and super­vis­ing the pris­on­ers.   Courage isn’t just over­com­ing our fears; it is also lis­ten­ing to our con­science and stand­ing up for what we know is right.  Indi­vid­ual sol­diers and com­man­ders knew the abuse was wrong, yet it wasn’t until Jan­u­ary that one sol­dier finally demon­strated the courage to stand up for his beliefs and inform mil­i­tary inves­ti­ga­tors about the abuse.  

Louder than words

 The United States has been work­ing to win over the hearts and minds of the Iraqi peo­ple, care­fully avoid­ing unnec­es­sary destruc­tion and killing, because our goal is to lib­er­ate the peo­ple from Sad­dam Hussein’s tyranny and to help Iraq estab­lish a democ­racy.  In try­ing to earn the trust of the Iraqi peo­ple, respect for human dig­nity speaks louder than force. Some might think that a quicker solu­tion would be to use vio­lence and force in order to make the peo­ple com­ply from fear, but it is worth­less to reach the goal if you have stepped on peo­ple in order to get there. The end never jus­ti­fies the means; you can­not say that cru­elty and mal­treat­ment are okay as long as they help us win the war. Even though strength is nec­es­sary to defend our­selves and oth­ers, we will only win the war for people’s hearts if we play fair. 

Adding Fuel to the Fire of Terrorism

Images of Amer­i­cans abus­ing Arab pris­on­ers inspire ter­ror­ists, and increase their ded­i­ca­tion to their vio­lent objec­tives.  For the ter­ror­ists, it is the per­fect pro­pa­ganda to recruit new mem­bers.  It makes them think that they are fol­low­ing a noble cause, because Amer­ica, the enemy, is pro­mot­ing evil and immoral­ity. When they see the pho­tographs of pris­on­ers being sex­u­ally abused, they also see evil in the whole soci­ety of the sol­diers, a soci­ety that pro­motes pornog­ra­phy and sex­ual immoral­ity. If they see the United States as some­thing evil, then the Mus­lims feel more con­fi­dent that they are morally supe­rior and have the duty to destroy us and reject all West­ern influence.

Fail­ings and growth

The world is now watch­ing Amer­ica to see how we han­dle the scan­dal from the per­spec­tives of pur­su­ing jus­tice and tak­ing respon­si­bil­ity.  Rather than only being a cause for shame, it can be an oppor­tu­nity to live up to our posi­tion of moral lead­er­ship. Just as the sacra­ment of Con­fes­sion gives us a chance to be hon­est with God about our sins, receive for­give­ness, and also receive graces (spir­i­tual power) to be an even bet­ter fol­lower of Christ, so a moral fall gives our coun­try the chance to spring back again, even higher than before. It is a moment to show what true jus­tice is, and how a morally upright coun­try responds to its own failures.  

A chance to show justice   

Jus­tice is in part the assign­ing of rewards and pun­ish­ments accord­ing to objec­tive eth­i­cal stan­dards and one’s actions and motives.  The mil­i­tary has already begun pub­lic courts-​​martial pro­ceed­ing against some of the guards involved in the abuse.  Many other inves­ti­ga­tions are being done, includ­ing pub­lic hear­ings in the Sen­ate, to deter­mine who knew about the abuse, and who may have con­tributed to the abuse includ­ing senior com­man­ders and policymakers.  

After respon­si­bil­ity and pun­ish­ments have been assigned, we will be able to judge for our­selves whether jus­tice has been served.  Lead­ers of nations against the US war in Iraq, such as Germany’s For­eign Min­is­ter, have already com­pli­mented Amer­ica on so openly and aggres­sively expos­ing its mis­takes and pur­su­ing jus­tice. The world will also be watch­ing to see whether the US mil­i­tary thor­oughly addresses the mis­takes and poli­cies, or lack of poli­cies, that led to the abuse.  

Unchastity and cruelty      

It is also time to look at Amer­i­can cul­ture as a whole, and see that the pro­mo­tion of pornog­ra­phy and the lack of sex­ual restraint lead to sex­ual humil­i­a­tion and abuse. This cre­ates a cul­ture that fos­ters a lack of respect for the dig­nity of the human per­son. An unchaste soci­ety always becomes cruel. 

The self-​​mastery required for chastity frees peo­ple from the tyranny of their pas­sions. When some­one knows how to use his energy for good he can nat­u­rally con­trol other dis­or­dered desires such as vengeance and power-​​abuse much bet­ter. Chastity and self-​​mastery also build up a great respect for other peo­ple and a cre­ative­ness in help­ing peo­ple live in the truth.

Char­ity and strength

Christ taught us that jus­tice should be tem­pered with char­ity, and that with­out mercy, jus­tice can quickly become cru­elty. Christ brought the new law of char­ity as the pri­mary weapon against cru­elty and hatred of oth­ers. On the cross Christ accepted the pun­ish­ment that we deserved in order to free us from our sins. On the cross Christ teaches us that mercy must go beyond strict jus­tice, and that love is stronger than evil and death. 

These virtues do not imply weak­ness. Christ tells us to use them wisely, act­ing “as inno­cent as doves and as cun­ning as serpents”(Matthew 10:16) so as to dodge the evil of men and yet remain con­fi­dent in God and Chris­t­ian val­ues. It is a call to all Chris­tians to be heroic in liv­ing this char­ity, with the con­fi­dence that one day, as in the ancient Roman empire, Chris­t­ian char­ity will change the entire culture. 

Vocab­u­lary

Coer­cion - the act of com­pelling by force of authority

Courage - The capac­ity to meet dan­ger with­out giv­ing way to fear; to have the courage of one’s con­vic­tions; to be will­ing to put one’s opin­ions into practice.

Geneva Con­ven­tions- A set of agree­ments signed by most of the nations of the world that defines treat­ment of civil­ians, pris­on­ers and sol­diers in war.

Justice-​​ fair treat­ment and due reward in accor­dance with honor, stan­dards, or law; the ren­der­ing to every one his due or right; just treat­ment; requital of desert; mer­ited reward or pun­ish­ment; that which is due to one’s con­duct or motives.

Propaganda-​​ infor­ma­tion that is spread for the pur­pose of pro­mot­ing some cause

Pru­dence - think­ing through the impli­ca­tions of our actions and deci­sions to avoid error or danger  

Respect for oth­ers - affirm­ing the value and dig­nity of all people.  

Respon­si­bil­ity  - Being account­able for our actions; accept­ing and meet­ing the demands of our cho­sen duty in life.     

Scan­dal - lead­ing oth­ers astray by bad example

Bible Blurbs

• ” But I say to you, love your ene­mies and pray for those who per­se­cute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the right­eous and the unright­eous. “  Matthew 5:44-45
• “But there is noth­ing cov­ered up that will not be revealed, and hid­den that will not be known. Accord­ingly, what­ever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whis­pered in the inner rooms will be pro­claimed upon the house­tops.” Luke 12:2-3
• ” Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you your­self do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hyp­ocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” Luke 6:42
• “Who­ever causes one of these lit­tle ones who believe to stum­ble, it would be bet­ter for him if, with a heavy mill­stone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.” Mark 9:42

Saints and Heroes

St. Peter Claver (1581-​​1654) Early in the sev­en­teenth cen­tury, there was a pros­per­ous slave trade from Africa to Cen­tral and South Amer­ica. A thou­sand slaves taken from their homes in Africa every month and forced onto a ship as cargo, under such hor­ri­ble con­di­tions that half died before reach­ing the Amer­i­cas. Peter Claver, son of a Span­ish farmer, was study­ing to become a Jesuit priest when he was inspired to live his priestly mis­sion in the Amer­i­cas. In 1610 he landed in Carta­gena, part of present-​​day Colum­bia, the chief slave-​​market of the New World, and worked for 44 years as an apos­tle to the African slaves. Although nat­u­rally timid and lack­ing in self-​​confidence, he declared him­self the slave of the Africans, and became dar­ing in his heroic char­ity. He went out to meet each ship that arrived full of fright­ened and suf­fer­ing peo­ple, and won their good will by his kind­ness and care. He defended them against their oppres­sors, and instructed them in the Catholic faith while they were wait­ing to be sold. In his life­time, Peter bap­tised over 300,000 slaves. Although he was crit­i­cized by many peo­ple, God gave him strength and even allowed him to work mir­a­cles in his mis­sion. Peter said of the slaves, “We must speak to them with our hands by giv­ing, before we try to speak to them with our lips.”

Judge Fal­cone: Gio­vanni Fal­cone was a judge in Sicily (South­ern Italy) who fear­lessly fought the Mafia. For years they had been killing, steal­ing, coun­ter­feit­ing money, sell­ing drugs, and spread­ing fear among the peo­ple. Judge Fal­cone was able to make large strides in com­bat­ting these crimes. He was appointed judge in 1964. Partly through the respect but tenac­ity he showed pris­on­ers when ques­tion­ing them, he was able to per­suade sev­eral impor­tant Mafia mem­bers to tell him about the Mafia and its activ­i­ties, and also col­lab­o­rated with the Amer­i­can gov­ern­ment to fight this crime net­work. He worked despite the threats against his life until May 23, 1992, when his car was exploded by a bomb while he was dri­ving to the air­port. He was killed along with his wife. Ambas­sador Sem­bler com­mem­o­rated him: “We are here to honor the extra­or­di­nary life and legacy of Judge Fal­cone, a man of rare integrity and courage. Judge Fal­cone believed that all peo­ple have a right to live safe from ter­ror and intim­i­da­tion. He had a pas­sion for the rule of law and con­fi­dence in its abil­ity to improve lives in Sicily, and around the world. Judge Fal­cone lived his life in the cause of jus­tice, and he lost his life in that pur­suit. He will never be for­got­ten.” His exam­ple has inspired oth­ers to also be coura­geous in the fight against the Mafia.

Dis­cus­sion Questions

1. What emo­tions do you think some of the guards and inter­roga­tors may have felt toward the accused ter­ror­ists that con­tributed to them abus­ing oth­ers? What virtues and prin­ci­ples could have off­set these emo­tions?  What would have hap­pened if these guards had been deeply evan­ge­lized and influ­enced by Chris­t­ian values?
2. Within a group, how impor­tant is lead­er­ship, espe­cially when the group is in a stress­ful sit­u­a­tion? What hap­pens when no one steps for­ward for pos­i­tive, con­struc­tive lead­er­ship? What would have hap­pened if there was one strong and heroic Chris­t­ian in the midst of the guards?
3. What would you say to the argu­ment that the guards were doing what they had to do in order to get valu­able infor­ma­tion out of the pris­on­ers? What if they were try­ing to end the war and save lives? Can they do what­ever they want in order to reach their goals?
4. The sacra­ment of Con­fes­sion (Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion) is a spe­cial gift from Christ that frees us from our sins and allows us to keep get­ting back up and try­ing again, even when we make mis­takes. In fact, the spe­cial graces that we receive in this sacra­ment and the hon­esty it gives us can make us even stronger than before. Christ gives us hope and con­fi­dence to not be dis­cour­aged by our mis­takes and to be bet­ter. How can we explain this hope in the face of our imper­fec­tion to oth­ers, to non-​​Catholics or to Catholics who do not know their faith?
5. What val­ues do you think Amer­ica stands for? What good val­ues does it stand for? What bad val­ues might it stand for presently? After the pris­oner abuse scan­dal, how can we restore and enhance our lead­er­ship in these areas? What do you think God is expect­ing from us in using this lead­er­ship that he gave us? 
6. What are some ways of rebuild­ing the trust that was bro­ken with the Iraqi peo­ple? What are some ways of rebuild­ing the val­ues in the cul­ture from where we are?
7. Pru­dence means choos­ing the right means to reach our goals. It means think­ing through the con­se­quences of our actions. This takes moral courage. Can you think of some occa­sions in young people’s lives when liv­ing pru­dence takes real courage?

Dis­cus­sion tips: 

-Tak­ing the time to reflect and lis­ten to one’s con­science before acting 

-Think­ing about oth­ers whom may be affected by our actions

-Putting God’s opin­ion before every­one else’s

Writ­ing Activities

1. Write about an inci­dent where a mis­take you or some­one else made had unin­tended impacted oth­ers. Describe what hap­pened, all of the con­se­quences, and the lessons that you learned from that inci­dent. How did you resolve the sit­u­a­tion, or get back up from it?
2. We have spo­ken about Amer­ica as a leader among the other coun­tries of the world. What does it mean to be a leader? In your jour­nal, write what it means to be a good leader. What is lead­er­ship for, and how can it be used to improve the lives of oth­ers? Give an exam­ple of a good leader and back your exam­ple up with the qual­i­ties that make that per­son a good leader. 

Res­o­lu­tion Ideas

1. In pairs, have stu­dents make a flier that helps peo­ple to under­stand that every per­son has influ­ence over what hap­pened in Iraq, by the way they sup­port or fight pornog­ra­phy in our coun­try. Help them be aware that we can­not crit­i­cize the sol­diers if we do not remove the inde­cency and lack of human respect that we see in the media, movies, inter­net, bill­boards, etc. Hold a con­test to judge the best flier, and if pos­si­ble, copy and dis­trib­ute them.

2. Sum­mer Project -Ask stu­dents to fol­low the courts-​​martial pro­ceed­ings against guards and com­man­ders, and the inves­ti­ga­tions into whether senior pol­icy mak­ers con­tributed to the scan­dal.  Ask each stu­dent to come back with their opin­ion on a spe­cific case of a guard, com­man­der, or pol­icy maker and whether they think jus­tice was done in either assign­ing, or not assign­ing punishment.  

  3. To help the stu­dents see their coun­try from another’s per­spec­tive, inves­ti­gate the news arti­cles about the abuse scan­dal, from Europe, Asia and the Mid­dle East. Have stu­dents record the key words and phrases in the arti­cle that con­vey a pos­i­tive or neg­a­tive image of Amer­ica.  Present the find­ings to the class.  

4. Hold a mock trial for one of the unnamed prison guards.  As the teacher, out­line a hypo­thet­i­cal back­ground for the case.  Des­ig­nate a group of stu­dents to make the defense, imag­in­ing the excuses that would nor­mally be given to dodge respon­si­bil­ity (just fol­low­ing orders, suf­fer­ing the stress of war, try­ing to get the pris­on­ers to coop­er­ate, etc.). Assign another group as pros­e­cu­tor to debate this defense and make the accu­sa­tions about why the guard should be found guilty. The remain­ing stu­dents will be judge and jury, hav­ing the assign­ment of deter­min­ing a sen­tence that is appro­pri­ate and will right the wrong done.  The judge and jury will strive to ful­fill the def­i­n­i­tion of jus­tice in assign­ing pun­ish­ment in accor­dance with our law and eth­i­cal stan­dards. As a vari­a­tion, hold two tri­als with two dif­fer­ent groups of stu­dents, first judg­ing from a worldly court’s per­spec­tive, and sec­ondly judg­ing with Chris­t­ian values.

Quotes for Fur­ther Formation 

Pornog­ra­phy and violence:

“A fun­da­men­tal mes­sage of pornog­ra­phy and vio­lence is dis­dain, the con­sid­er­a­tion of oth­ers as objects rather than as per­sons. Thus, pornog­ra­phy and vio­lence can eat away at ten­der­ness and com­pas­sion and can fos­ter insen­si­tiv­ity and even brutality.

Young peo­ple them­selves can help to stem the tide of pornog­ra­phy and vio­lence in the media by respond­ing pos­i­tively to the ini­tia­tives of their par­ents and edu­ca­tors and by tak­ing respon­si­bil­ity for their own moral deci­sions in the choice of entertainment.

The gen­eral pub­lic also needs to make its voice heard. Indi­vid­u­ally and col­lec­tively, con­cerned cit­i­zens - includ­ing young peo­ple - should make their views known to pro­duc­ers, com­mer­cial inter­ests and pub­lic author­i­ties. There is an urgent need for con­tin­u­ing dia­logue between com­mu­ni­ca­tors and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the pub­lic so that those involved in the com­mu­ni­ca­tions media may learn more about the real needs and inter­ests of those whom they serve.” (Pon­tif­i­cal Coun­cil for Social Com­mu­ni­ca­tions:  Pornog­ra­phy and Vio­lence in the Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Media: A Pas­toral Response)

Dig­nity of the prisoner:

“As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25: 40). These words con­tain, we could say, the “pro­gramme” of the Jubilee in Pris­ons which we are cel­e­brat­ing today. They invite us to live them as a com­mit­ment to the dig­nity of all peo­ple, that dig­nity which flows from God’s love for every human person.

At the cen­tre of this Jubilee (day) there is Christ, the pris­oner; at the same time there is Christ the law­giver. It is he who estab­lishes the law, pro­claims it and strength­ens it. How­ever he does this not with arro­gance, but with meek­ness and love. He heals what is sick, strength­ens what is bruised. Where a faint flame of good­ness still burns, he revives it with the breath of his love. He force­fully pro­claims jus­tice and  heals  wounds  with  the  balm  of mercy.” (John Paul II, Homily of the Jubilee of Pris­ons, 9 July 2000).

Jus­tice and Mercy

“The Church shares with the peo­ple of our time this pro­found and ardent desire for a life which is just in every aspect, nor does she fail to exam­ine the var­i­ous aspects of the sort of jus­tice that the life of peo­ple and soci­ety demands… 

“…The expe­ri­ence of the past and of our own time demon­strates that jus­tice alone is not enough, that it can even lead to the nega­tion and destruc­tion of itself, if that deeper power, which is love, is not allowed to shape human life in its var­i­ous dimen­sions. It has been pre­cisely his­tor­i­cal expe­ri­ence that, among other things, has led to the for­mu­la­tion of the say­ing: sum­mum ius, summa ini­uria (max­i­mum jus­tice, max­i­mum injus­tice). This state­ment does not detract from the value of jus­tice and does not min­i­mize the sig­nif­i­cance of the order that is based upon it; it only indi­cates, under another aspect, the need to draw from the pow­ers of the spirit which con­di­tion the very order of jus­tice, pow­ers which are still more pro­found.” (John Paul II, On the Mercy of God, no. 12)

Resources

Pon­tif­i­cal doc­u­ment on the eth­i­cal use of the means of social com­mu­ni­ca­tion: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_20000530_ethics-communications_en.html

Mil­i­tary code of law: http://www.armystudyguide.com/code_of_conduct

Geneva Con­ven­tion on the treat­ment of pris­on­ers of war: http://www.un-documents.net/gc-3.htm
(Updated link. Orig­i­nal source taken from a now bro­ken link on http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf)

Inter­na­tional news­pa­pers: http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx