Iraqis Tortured by American Forces at Abu Ghraib Jail

The New Yorker has provided us all with a harrowing account of the torture being inflicted upon Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib Jail. It is nauseating just to imagine that such horrific events take place. What appears below is part of a 53-page report written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba completed in late February, outlining some of the abuses inflicted upon the inmates, many of whom are being held without being charged with any crime.

"Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee."

I must admit that this level of depravity leaves me at a loss for words. I am a pacifist but such horrible acts demand retribution. While I am not about to fly to Baghdad and pick up an AK-47, I will take a stand and wish the Iraqi resistance best of luck.

I spend a large amount of my time trying to convince my father that the U.S. isn't the benevolent force that he imagines. They are the perpetrators of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the fiends that napalmed villages in Vietnam, the terrorists that mined Nicaragua's harbours, and the unfailing supporters of the militaristic Israeli regime that holds Palestinians beneath it's boot. The U.S. has committed scores of atrocities in the name of "democracy" and the "free market". Absolute power corrupts absolutely and when you give a man a stick, he'll use it to beat his neighbour until he bleeds through the nostrils.

The images of these poor Iraqis being forced to commit unspeakable acts are only evidence that the American warrior culture is heartless and cruel. They are, after all, the creators of reality television, where individuals will eat unborn ostrich fetuses for the chance at a million dollars. When the Nazis were burning my ancestors in their easy-bake ovens, let us not forget that America turned away thousands of Jews who were seeking refugee status. They also manufacture a large amount of the weapons used to maim or kill all around the world. We all know which master America serves, and it sure as hell isn't God. Here's a hint: it's green and printed in several denominations.

I don't want to give you the impression that I hate all Americans. That is like hating the forest just because of the nasty rash you got from touching some poison ivy. I just hate their government, their military, and their foreign policy. I have no particular opinion about the millions of people who blindly follow their Xeno-leadership and who read the New York Post. Suffice it to say that I wouldn't invite any of them to a dinner party.