Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr. got tens years in prison for his role in the Abu Ghirab prison scandal.
Honestly, I feel kind of bad for the guy.
Why would I, a peace activist, feel bad for a man who we all know committed abuse if not torture (to engage in Donald Rumsfeld’s game of semantics)? Because, right or wrong, I believe he was acting on orders. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think he’s a good guy or that he shouldn’t be punished. No one is holding a gun to his head as he gives thumbs up signs or over tortured Iraqis. However, I think Meet the Press’ Tim Russert said it best when he said that these reservist didn’t pack their bags for Iraq and include dog collars, leashes and hoods. There were getting supplied and instructed by US military intelligence.
It has to burn Graner’s ass to be going to prison while torture apologist, Alberto Gonzales is on his way to being our next Attorney General. It’s like arresting Frank Nitty and giving Al Capone the key to the city on the same day.
It amazes me that the Bush Administration (with the help of the right-wing echo chamber) can play the Jedi mind trick on the press and the public like this (This is the result of a few bad apples… these are not the droids you are looking for). It amazes me that the press has not connected the dots between Gonzales’ torture memo, Abu Ghirab and the School of the Americas (SOA). My admittedly unscientific Google search for “abu ghirab soa” got zero hits for news and 3 hits for websites, two were for Portland Indy Media, and the other was a rather interesting blog.
The secondary tragedy of Abu Ghirab is that, given the opportunity to discuss the fact that the US not only condones torture, it advocates and teaches classes in it, the mainstream media are treating this like a fluke. I suspect that after the last low level Army reservist is slapped with a prison sentence and Gonzales is confirmed as the new Attorney General, Abu Ghirab will be just another historical footnote. How many Abu Ghirabs, Iran Contras, El Salvadors, and Iraqs, have to happen before we realize that what we call scandal is not the exception but the rule?
ANd what’s so sad is that this isn’t at all surprising. Oh but hey! We’re having a big celebration in DC for the Inauguration! Wheee! Isn’t this fun? Isn’t Bush the best? Meh. I’m going to go lay on the couch and continue being sick while watching Sci Fi.