Summary Of Ghost Of Abu Gharib

The video, “Ghosts of Abu Gharib”, told the tale of inhumane treatment of Iraqi prisoners by United States military personnel in the early 2000’s. After the events that took place on September 11th, 2001 many individuals felt it was their need to join the army, fight for their country, and aid the war against terror. This was a very unique war because the rules of combat were not clearly stated because there was no straightforward law about treatment of individuals who were part of terror group. There was the Geneva law established in 1949 making torture illegal as an international law; however, it was not stated whether it applied to countries who were not part of making the law and did not enforce. One individual talked about his first day in combat asking about the
rules of engagement and being told, “If It looks like enemy, shoot it!” The rules were unclear and then began to change. The United States began bending the rules and redefined torture, so the definition was very narrow stating something was considered torture if it led to, “Death, organ failure, and loss of bodily function”. This statement was sadly taken advantage of and individuals were brutally tortured in the Iraqi prison Abu Gharib by American Soldiers. This was a prison with men, women and children, who could simply be placed in jail based off a hunch. The jail consisted of different tiers, with ranging levels of criminals. The government believed many of these men had information about Al-Qaeda, and Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, enhanced the interrogation technique allowing it to include stress evoking actions, small confined spaces, mental games, sex position and nudity. This spread like wild fire through the Abu Ghraib prison and torture ensued. Men were beaten, interrogated completely naked, were put in sexual positions while naked with other inmates, were deprived of sleep, handcuffed in painful position and the list goes on. The inhumane torture was not only shocking, but all photographed with smiling prison guards laughing about the treatment of these human beings. The pictures ended up getting released to the public and the US government charged many of the soldiers, stated none of this was sanctioned, and referred to this as, “Sadism on the nightshift”.
Being an outsider in this situation it is impossible to imagine doing this to another human being; however, those who were involved were interviewed in this video and revealed how easily their minds changed when in this situation. I noticed the presence of a mob mentality and listening to authority, very evident in the recall of events by the accused. This was very similar to the Stanley Milgram psychology research, where human beings were able to shock others simply by being told even though they knew it was leading to great distress, and possibly death. These individuals were in a world where they were being shot at daily and surrounded by people that could have possibly been connected to the events that killed hundred of people in the twin towers. The recalled the prison being, not only a, “Turn in morale”, but “Rock bottom”. On top of what was previously state, they were being told this was their orders and many watched colleagues partake in these events, which in a way desensitized many to these horrible human right violations. They all stated they were not the same person in Iraq that they were in the United States. One prison guard stated every day he woke up and forgot about the last day because every day was worse than that prior and he needed to numb himself to mentally survive. These factors were overwhelmingly controlling, which was evident when the photographs were revealed and some even seemed shocked at themselves.
The ethical issues are extreme in this situation.
There needs to not only be a real reason for an action, but one needs to think about those affected by the actions and the long-term effects. As Mill had preached all rights should be respected and to assess the moral aspect of an action one needs to think of the consequence as well. Interrogating someone so they are mentally controlled and sexually embarrassed is not something that is fleeting, but instead can scar someone much longer than a broken bone or bruise would. The actions of the individuals had very little positive outcome and nothing important came out of these interrogations besides extreme physical and mental pain, and in some cases death. People have a moral obligation to be best person they can and treat others in a manner that not only embodies this, but also promotes it. The ethical issues are not only with those who were directly involved, but also those who knew what was going on and chose not to help. Regardless if one is involved or not, it is everyone’s job to think about the greater good, and ignoring inhumane situations is no different than being part of one because doing nothing is a cognitive choice and the morally wrong
one.
These actions and events cannot only be put on the soldiers, for the people in higher positions enabled these situations to happen by changing laws, turning a blind eye and opening the door for cruel treatment. These behaviors could have been avoided if a stricter guideline was in place. The actual rules were very blurry in this situation and these gave people a lot of room to run with the situation. Also, there was no one in Iraq at the prison that supervised making sure everything going on was allowed and humane. There should be a person who oversees the whole operations and makes sure all laws and rules are being obeyed. These events could have easily been avoided if there were strict guidelines being enforced by a physical person. Lastly, it needed to be addressed that these prisoners were still people. If the prison guards had seen them as people, they would not have treated them like trash. The events in Abu Ghraib prison need to be known and exposed, so they will never happen again.