More Photos Coming

Like a bad dream that keeps coming back, photos of prison abuse in Iraq are about to become public, again.

The Defense Department is planning to provide Congress with many more pictures of the abusive treatment of Iraqi detainees, but has not decided whether to release them to the public, according to congressional leaders and Pentagon officials.

In the end, President George W. Bush is likely to decide whether to make the images public, aides said Sunday.

Inside the White House, several of Bush's aides have argued that he has little choice but to make them public. Sooner or later, they say, the images will leak out, prolonging the pain, fueling Iraqi and Arab suspicions of a Pentagon-orchestrated coverup, and giving new life to calls for the removal of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

I asked this quetion before, but it bears asking again. Should we see these pictures? Should they be released? What is the value in Americans seeing these pictures; seeing what was done in our name and on our dime?

Kevin, of Lean Left, makes a good point about the nature of how the first sets of pictures were released.

Now, obviously, the purpose of stripping them naked and photographing them, and likely the purpose of having female soldiers mock them while naked, is (aside from the sexual-sadistic thrill it may give to the torturers) to play on Iraqi cultural values of modesty and sexual privacy. In addition to the physical torture they may have suffered, and the humiliation of being stripped naked and abused sexually or in sexually-suggestive ways, the abuse is compounded by the prisoners' being observed in their humiliation, especially while naked, and especially by women. That aspect of the torture is increased immeasurably by the threat or knowledge that pictures of this embarrassment will be circulated around the world. Reportedly, the torturers were encouraged by the interrogators to take photos of their abusiveness for precisely this reason.

What this means, however, is that the circulation of these photos around the world is having precisely the effect intended by the torturers. And more than this, the media are - unthinkingly, I'm sure - contributing to this effect by identifying the men in their despair. I do think these photos should be publicized and the immensity of the abuses in Iraq made clear - but there are ways to do this while preserving the anonymity of the victims.

In other words, the media have chosen to censor these images out of concern for their impact on the viewers but not out of concern for their impact on the victims.

And we're told that the coming photographs are even worse than what we've seen thus far.

So again I ask, do we need to see them? If so, why? I'm inclined to think that they should be seen, but I want to hear what other people think.

Comments

[Mark]

Part of me wants to see them.

The other part doesn't, out of respect for the people who had to go through such horrible treatment by our troops.

I'm on the fence.

[Gale]

I, too, have mixed feelings about this. I think we need to know what is being done in our name. Certainly a written report detailing the types of abuse is necessary. And maybe the photos, too, and video. People need to understand what war creates. I worry about the repurcussions for the people who have been abused, though, if their identity is made public. I read somewhere this morning about how for women, this is a real issue, and supposedly there are photos of the women prisoners being sexually abused, raped. An imam in Iraq said these women could be treated horribly by their families if this is made public, possibly even killed, because of the shame this will bring on the family. It is hard to believe this is still the case in Iraq, but it is part of their culture, according to the imam that was interviewed. I wish I could find that link!

[Jaye]

Just letting you know that I am working at a civil rights/public interest organization and I love it so much. I cannot tell you how cool it is. I have responsibilities and yet they are treating me like a human being!

There is hope out there. The images of the prison abuse are just horrible. They have really affected me, too.

Keep the faith. Get thee to the law school.