"How the U.S. is Liberating Iraq"

CHAIN OF COMMAND
by Seymour M. Hersh, www.newyorker.com

US's Idea O Liberation

An Iraqi prisoner and American military dog handlers.
Other photographs show the Iraqi on the ground, bleeding.

One of the new photographs shows a young soldier, wearing a dark jacket over his uniform and smiling into the camera, in the corridor of the jail. In the background are two Army dog handlers, in full camouflage combat gear, restraining two German shepherds. The dogs are barking at a man who is partly obscured from the camera’s view by the smiling soldier. Another image shows that the man, an Iraqi prisoner, is naked. His hands are clasped behind his neck and he is leaning against the door to a cell, contorted with terror, as the dogs bark a few feet away. Other photographs show the dogs straining at their leashes and snarling at the prisoner. In another, taken a few minutes later, the Iraqi is lying on the ground, writhing in pain, with a soldier sitting on top of him, knee pressed to his back. Blood is streaming from the inmate’s leg. Another photograph is a closeup of the naked prisoner, from his waist to his ankles, lying on the floor. On his right thigh is what appears to be a bite or a deep scratch. There is another, larger wound on his left leg, covered in blood.
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Monday, May 10th, News Update posted:

Like the Wehrmacht, we've descended into barbarity

The treatment of Iraqi prisoners is a consequence of coalition policy

The mistreatment of prisoners, common in Iraq as in occupied Russia or Vietnam, has horrified world opinion. But it is the standard behaviour of troops under pressure, fighting a war whose purpose is hard for them to understand.

There is, however, an important difference in the Iraqi case. The troops are professional soldiers (albeit some are reservists), not reluctant conscripts. The perpetrators of atrocities on the eastern front were, in Christopher Browning's well-known phrase, "ordinary men". In Vietnam, young recruits were thrown into a tough and pointless war.

This time we are dealing with soldiers trained to high professional standards - and it is alarming how their behaviour has degenerated. The images of gung-ho marines, armed to the teeth, guarding emaciated, poorly clad Iraqis, shows how unequal is the contest. A recent picture of two US tankmen flexing their muscles for the camera as they withdrew from Falluja conveys the cult of machismo which has invaded the professional armies, as it permeated the German army that entered Russia 60 years ago. www.guardian.co.uk

Faces of a tormenter
One of the seven United States military police reservists facing a possible court martial for abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad has disclosed that she never read or even saw a copy of the Geneva Convention until two months after she was charged. www.theage.com.au