6 Comments:

Anonymous Thomas said…

Thanks for the link, Maha.

Thomas
Fri May 29, 12:15:00 PM
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Anonymous lily said…

How fucking gross. Thanks for linking. – lily
Sat May 30, 01:27:00 PM
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Blogger Clay said…

You mentioned this before, but it’s good to pull us back to it.

I have to say, I have mixed feelings about the decision not to publish the photos. This is one of those times when you can really understand the result a politician is going for, whether or not you agree with it.
On the one hand, yes–releasing these pictures will endanger soldiers. On the other, like you said before, the fact that this took place at all is what will endanger them most.

How does it ever get to this point? How do things get so bad that people could lose all sense of morality and justice and do things like this and think it’s okay?
I hope those “appropriate actions” taken on the people in the photos were enough.
Sun May 31, 10:15:00 AM
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Blogger one female canuck said…

I love that you’ve raised this point, Clay…as it’s something which I too have been struggling with, and have been thinking to make it the subject of my next article.

I’ve been reading all of these op-eds where people are screaming and yelling and flailing around that these pictures MUST BE PUBLISHED. And I keep coming back to the same questions:
(1) What purpose will it serve to publish them? We know it’s happening – we have known that rape was occurring since the beginning, it’s just that denial of photos of rape (rather than rape itself) was the standard claim.

Do we believe that it will sway some American opinion re their role in war?

Because outside of the US, most of the global citizenry thinks this war is a fkn joke, anyway, the American military a beast. Seeing pictures will not sway world opinion, which has already been swayed.

IF the release of these pictures is intended to help prosecute the war criminals of the past Administration, then I would support it.

But, I still have a problem with that because I don’t think it’s the pictures that need to be the reason for prosecuting them, but rather the policies. It’s not the end but rather the process. Because otherwise, we’re saying that had there been no proof or rape or torture, it is still okay to imbed the allowance of torture within policy.Not acceptable.

(2) There is an angle here many people have not considered; in fact, most pople have not mentioned it.

No one has stopped to think what the release of these pictures would do to those being brutalised in the pictures. No one has stopped to consider the consequence, the double and triple and near eternal humiliation – now that nothing dissapears on the internet – in the lives of these individuals. The trauma associated with what has happened to them. We may not recognise them, but they will know. They will know.

All of the above is what I’ve been struggling with and I probably just free-thought most of my article (though not articulated well…)…

Thanks for raising that point, Clay…

maha
Sun May 31, 11:31:00 AM
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Anonymous Maria Calvo said…

Your comments are too smart for me. Did you write the article? Where is it?

Hugs,
Maria
p.s. my word verification is JOSHerp like a burp
Thu Jun 11, 12:44:00 AM