[5-8-04]

There are huge questions raised for us by a monstrous violation of humanity. We make no pretense to provide answers at this early point, but we offer a few thoughts from your WebWeaver, and a variety of other resources you may find helpful (below).

We're grateful for the numerous comments we've received on our postings, and they're still coming in.  We'll post them as quickly as we as we can.

Click here for the first installment of comments.    [5-11-04]

We've received more responses to our postings on the revelations of -- well, what would you call it? -- in Iraq.  One writer laments that "We have become a lawless nation."  One says "It's good to be an American."  [5-13-04]

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Torturing prisoners -
a few bad apples,
or a skill we've taught?

Remember how congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle deplored the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib as un-American? Last Thursday, however, the House quietly passed a renewed appropriation that keeps open the U.S.s most infamous torture-teaching institution, known as the School of the Americas (SOA), where the illegal physical and psychological abuse of prisoners of the kind the world condemned at Abu Ghraib and worse has been routinely taught for years.

You can read more details on LA Weekly or TruthOut.org     [7-26-04]

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Observing Memorial Day

NCC plans Memorial Day observance in Washington, DC, on Thursday, May 27,
suggests resources for other services     [5-26-04]

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Our Soldiers and Us    [5-26-04]

Eliot A. Cohen, Robert E. Osgood professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, looks at the actions of US soldiers at Abu Ghraib as reflecting the culture from which they come, and as effects of poor military and political leadership.

His essay was published in the Washington Post on May 25, 2004.

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A suggestion for protest:

Wear red every Friday, "so we can see that we are the majority."

A Witherspooner forwarded this interesting note -- a suggestion for protest that borrows from the heroic (and non-violent) resistance of Norwegians to the Nazi occupation in World War II.    [5-26-04]

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We're losing the moral high ground in Iraq

[5-24-04]

A Floridian notes shifting views of the Iraq war among his friends, both liberal and conservative. When torture is something we do just like "the bad guys," and when our supposedly good purposes justify any evil means (which was what Marxists used to claim, right: "The ends justify the means"?) it's hard to claim a role as liberators.

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Jonathan Justice comments (in part responding to the letter from Dr. Earl Tilford) on the broader dimensions of the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib. He sees the US military effort as seriously inadequate for the huge task (including cultural and religious conflict) assigned to them.   [5-17-04]

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Torture at Abu Ghraib:

More than just "a few bad apples"   [5-17-04]

A few days ago your WebWeaver offered some thoughts on the deep roots of the brutal mistreatment of detainees in Abu Ghraib Prison, involving the false quasi-theological assumptions of the current administration in Washington.

A new article just posted by Newsweek International provides strong evidence of just how clearly the practice of torture in Iraq reflects the values and policies of the US administration.

The article (a long one!) is posted on Truthout.org, and on the Newsweek section of MSNBC.

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The Witherspoon Award for Creative Scapegoating:

Religious Right leaders blame Iraqi prison abuse scandal on MTV

[5-14-04]

Colson comments 'one of the stupidest things said about the Abu Ghraib scandal to date,' observes AU's Lynn

Press release from Americans United for Separation of Church and State

May 13, 2004

Two leaders of the Religious Right have blamed the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal on a remarkable source: watching too much MTV.

Chuck Colson spoke this week at a pastors' briefing in Washington sponsored by the Family Research Council. In a May 12 e-mail to supporters, FRC President Tony Perkins observed, "As Chuck Colson pointed out at yesterday's Pastors' Briefing, when you mix young people who grew up on a steady diet of MTV and pornography with a prison environment, you get the abuse at Abu Ghraib."

Perkins also accused "the liberal media" of using the photos "in an effort to damage the Bush Administration."

The remarks drew derision from Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group.

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, made the following comment: "This is one of the stupidest things said about the Abu Ghraib scandal to date. Seeing Colson and Perkins stoop this low should not really surprise me, but I'm disappointed at their lack of imagination. Surely they could have found some way to blame the scandal on same-sex marriage, Bill Clinton or activist judges. Blaming every horrible thing that happens on MTV is SO '80s."

Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.

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Fellowship of Reconciliation urges people contact Congress  [5-14-04]

FOR sees the torture of detainees in Abu Ghraib as reflecting the US administration's "demonization of the Arab and Muslim world since Sept 11, 2001." They conclude: "The "enemy" holds no monopoly on evil and "our side" no monopoly on good."

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A visitor comments on the resolution passed by the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area, on the abuse of detainees in Iraq.

The Rev. Carl Grosse shares in the resolution's dismay over "the horrible abuses being reported from Iraq," but questions the right of the church in "prescribing the government's work."     [5-14-04]

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NCC releases ecumenical pastoral letter on Iraq, urges local churches to read it aloud at services    [5-13-04]

In an ecumenical pastoral letter, leaders of the National Council of Churches USA and its 36 Protestant and Orthodox member communions call for a change of course in Iraq. Their goal, they agree, is peace and a renunciation of violence as contrary to the will of God. "In a sinful world, some of us may hold that there may be times when war is a necessary evil," they write. "But Christians should never identify violence against others with the will of God and should always work to prevent and end it." They call on the United States "to turn over the transition of authority and post-war reconstruction to the United Nations - and to recognize U.S. responsibility to contribute to this effort generously through security, economic, and humanitarian support - not only to bring international legitimacy to the effort, but also to foster any chance for lasting peace." The NCC encourages local churches to read the pastoral letter aloud in services during the coming month.

Click here for the full text of the letter and the signatories.

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America and Torture: Do We Still Recognize Ourselves?   [5-12-04]

FaithfulAmerica.org is "an online community for people of faith who want to build a more just and compassionate nation." It has issued one very good, brief statement of this issues arising from the actions of the US military in Iraq.

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"This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think and, having thought, to have second thoughts."    [5-13-04]

-- Conservative columnist George F. Will, in his column entitled "Time for Bush to See The Realities of Iraq."   Published on May 4, 2004, in The Washington Post.

Source: Sojourners 2004 (c)  http://www.sojo.net

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What we have been seeing from Abu Ghraib is nothing less than torture - and it should be investigated by the UN   [5-11-04]

Douglas A. Johnson, as executive director of the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis, knows about torture from working with the many victims of torture who have come to the Center from around the world for rehabilitation and healing.

He wrote in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on May 9, urging that "the United States must allow - and in fact invite - the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture to conduct an independent investigation. The rest of the world wouldn't believe an investigation performed by the U.S. government."

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Sojourners calls on Christians to take action:

"Demand Rumsfeld's resignation, independent investigation"    [5-11-04]

They continue:

"Republicans, Democrats, and internationally respected humanitarian and human rights organizations agree: the abuses committed in U.S. military prisons in Iraq are systemic, and the responsibility for them reaches to the highest levels of leadership. An independent investigation is required to determine the extent of and persons responsible for these crimes - including military police and intelligence officials, the CIA, and independent military contractors. The system that allowed these abuses to occur cannot be trusted to fully correct them."

They provide a form for sending letters to Congress, and more information on the issues.

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The danger of fear:  a sermon

A sermon preached on May 2 by the Rev. Dean Lindsey starts from the understanding that the military guards who were the first ones accused were motivated primarily by fear - extreme anxiety that made them "lose their humanity ... their moral compass ... [and] forget the basic value of respect for human life."

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On saying you're sorry

The Progress Report on May 7 carried a short, thoughtful essay on the difficulty Pres. Bush seemed to have in offering any apology - and then directing it to King Abdullah II of Jordan, not to anyone directly involved. It is noted that warnings have been circulating for months, getting little attention.

The writers comment on the calls for Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation, but they conclude:

At the end of the day, ultimate responsibility lies with the Commander-in-Chief, George Bush. EJ Dionne writes in the Washington Post, "[D]umping Rumsfeld...is not enough. Ultimately the buck stops with President Bush. No, I don't think for an instant that Bush knew anything about this. That's the problem. Reports of prisoner abuse have been around since the war in Afghanistan and the opening of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The president needs to explain why he wasn't more curious about what was happening, and whether his management style delegates so much authority that the White House could be caught so unprepared for this catastrophe."

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America and Its Moral Superiority Complex

An article in Le Monde - long critical of America's military venture in Iraq - says that the revelation of mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib "force America, once again, to face the contrast between the moral superiority to which it lays claim and the violence that it produces."

[The] photos send back to America an image of itself that clashes with its pretensions to incarnate good in the war against evil. George Bush has systematically used this rhetoric, in January 2002, ... to denounce "the Axis of Evil", which, according to him, comprised Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. While terrorists kill blindly, he has often repeated, Americans are essentially "a good people", "decent", respectful of others, and anxious to see the whole world profit from the benefits of freedom, which is "a gift from God to men". Suspected ever since the opening of the camp at Guantanamo Bay on a naval base the United States occupies in Cuba, a different reality has come to light.

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Lack of accountability can destroy - whether it is victims of torture in Abu Ghraib or our own country's parks and forests.

Peter Sawtell, Executive Director of Eco-Justice Ministries, offers one of his insightful looks at connections - in this case the way privatization, whether of quasi-military organizations in Iraq or of National Park Service functions, makes abuses more difficult to trace. He concludes: "Whether in Iraqi prisons or biological labs, it is important that there be direct accountability for the most sensitive and controversial government services. It is a matter of justice in both cases."

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There's more to come

Reporting on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's appearance before House and Senate committees on May 7, Marc Sandalow noted that "Not since the Vietnam War a generation ago has the credibility of top U.S. military commanders been challenged as aggressively and openly as it was Friday on Capitol Hill."

He suggests that this event could well be a turning point in the American people's attitudes toward the war that they have generally supported so far.

He also mentions one little irony: "Just last week, Bush said that as a result of removing Hussein, 'there are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq.' "

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Hired guns with war crimes past

Pacific News Service offers a more detailed look at the use of privatized security services in Iraq, which it says "has put terrorists, mercenaries and war criminals on the payrolls of companies contracted by the Pentagon."

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 Do you want to do something??

School of the Americas Watch - folks who know something about action after years of protesting US training of Latin American military personnel for the work of oppression and torture - sees recent US actions in Iraq as very similar to what has been going on for years in Latin America.