CONTACT CONGRESS ABOUT IRAQI PRISON ABUSE

The Fellowship of Reconciliation, the oldest peace organization in the United States, issued the statement below on May 13, 2004 on the violence in Iraq and the mistreatment of prisoners. Call your Congressional Representatives and urge them to demand a civilian investigation and full accountability. Go to http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/ for Senate and House of Representatives contact information

Torture in Iraq: No monopoly on capacity for evil

In July last year, President Bush was asked whether the invasion and occupation of Iraq might prompt anti-American Al Qaida forces, who had never operated in Iraq before, to travel there to attack Americans. The president's response, in his characteristic Clint Eastwood western style, was, "Bring 'Em On." They came. Thanks to the folly of the U.S. administration's policies and attitudes, Al Qaida-related groups have created a new theater of terror where none existed before. The shocking decapitation of an American contractor this week by Al Qaida operatives is evidence of that.

President Bush's cavalier attitude, coupled with the ongoing demonization of the Arab and Muslim world since Sept 11, 2001, also sent another message, this one to the U.S. military. The intelligence interrogators and prison guards in Abu Ghraib prison understood it well. If Al Qaida were "the evil ones" and Iraq was an Al Qaida operating base, then their prisoners were as evil as though they personally flew planes into the World Trade Center.

The demonization continues today, on all sides of the political spectrum. Senators Lindsay Graham, (R-SC) and Joe Lieberman, (D-CT) responded on CNN this week to the U.S. mistreatment of prisoners and the beheading of an American contractor. They used this language: The U.S. guards who had abused, humiliated, raped, tortured and perhaps killed Iraqi prisoners had engaged in "degrading and cruel" behavior. Their actions were "unfortunate excesses;" they "went too far." The men who beheaded the contractor were "despicable,' "barbarous," "sub-human" and "behaved like animals."

In addition to the dehumanization of the enemy, Americans have given themselves a charter of immunity. Since 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan, the Bush administration has claimed exemption for the United States from the constraints of international law. It is as though the U.S. is so fundamentally good, its purpose so noble, that it cannot and should not be bound by the Geneva Conventions, the International Criminal Court, or the need to listen to the international community. The systemic violence at Abu Ghraib is indeed shocking, but in such a climate, it is not surprising.

Who are the victims of this maltreatment? According to a February Red Cross report, the U.S.'s own military intelligence officers estimated that 70-90 percent of "persons deprived of their liberty in Iraq" were innocent of any wrongdoing. Other intelligence officers assert that most of the Abu Ghraib detainees were caught up in general "sweeps," in the hope that they might provide useful information.

The innocence or otherwise of the detainees abused and tortured is, of course, irrelevant. What was done to them is against international law, as well as every religious and moral tenet of decency or compassion. That so many of them had done nothing to deserve incarceration in the first place merely demonstrates how degraded U.S. judgment has become and why our troops should leave Iraq now.

The violence of the last few weeks throws light on an essential truth: The "enemy" holds no monopoly on evil and "our side" no monopoly on good. All humankind has the capacity to perpetrate evil and violence upon its fellows. All violence, whether depicted graphically in photographs and videos, or taking place anonymously, out of the camera's range, is an affront to the God-given humanity of all. Americans now face the humbling task of asking themselves and their government how it could possibly have been in any nation's interests to provoke such violence by invading and occupying a nation that never attacked us.

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