Abu Ghreb Prison!
A bad name for a bad place! Abu Ghreb prison was one of the top torture centres of the Baathist regime led by Saddam Al Tikriti! Unfortunately its bad reputation has been continued by some of the US soldiers by torturing and abusing the Iraqi prisoners. This is a very big blow to the reputation of the US policy, at least the declared part of it. It is certainly a big disappointment for the Iraqis who supported the freedom and democracy after the removal of the tyrant regime and its danger from the region and the world.
We know that there are bad and good people in every society and no body expect the US soldiers to be angles walking on the earth, but the problem of the POWs abuses is more than an isolated cases. It also included abuses by the British troops! More than that it was kept under the carpet for long time! The above factors raised many doubts about the way this issue was handled by the top officials of the coalition troops especially the US and UK governments. We think that the timing to publish such abuses now served the opponents of the GWB and Tony Blair in their next elections in both countries. If these governments handled it right from the first abuses and rejected it then judged the perpetrators, it would have been considered as a favourable point for them. The question is; why the top officials kept silent about it?!
Now; and after all of this how far the abuses still existed? Is it completely gone and if so who may monitor it? The other question is; are the US and the UK governments waiting for more publication to escape by the media then react to it or they are going to make the situation clear by revealing the whole scale. If not it may then become like a time bomb for them at the time of elections! We think they should work now in a way leaving no doubts about it.
The others who benefited from it are the terrorist groups because they will spend very little effort to convince the other people that they are right in their war against those who committed such acts. Of course we know that the perpetrators are few and they are not representing the whole people in the US but the terrorists already made their statements last week and some responded on their side while the others are in their way to act for them physically in the next few months or may be weeks!
We think the Iraqis and others as well as the US citizens need to know how many among those who are abused belong to the security of Saddam regime and how many are innocent? This is a very very important question to answer not because we like to see Saddam thugs abused but the victims of Saddam regime at least do not bother about them! They themselves used to abuse in a wide scale the innocent Iraqi people. In all circumstances and to cut the rumours of this issue it need to be fully investigated and made clear to the public otherwise you will see more pictures and some may fake it to get money out of nothing. Then the innocent victims may get compensations while the security and Mokhabarat of Saddam should not be compensated for an act they used to do it themselves against their victims but rather they should be tired by an Iraqi court.
We iterated always that the Baath regime killers should be tried sooner rather than latter and get their punishment. Only by this way you may get security and justice. On the same time those who abused the Iraqi POWs should be tired all of them and justice should take its way to them. Only by this the US and UK officials may win back their reputation which will not come fully by statements on the TVs or apologies here and there. We think that for their benefits and their citizens' benefits they should deal with it sooner. On the same time we do not accept similar torture and mutilation to happen to the US or other citizens. Those in Falluja who mutilated the US bodies after killing them should be brought to justice. We said that before and we stand for it now.
Lastly Abu Ghreb prison should be converted into a museum as a witness for the crimes of Saddam regime over 35 years. Its torture chambers, execution rooms, horror cells and frightening walls should be preserved for the whole world as a sign of the brutality of that regime and the suffering of the Iraqis under its iron fist. It is so wrong to bring it down at all!! If you want to tell the next generation that you freed the Iraqis from Saddam regime you should have witnesses for the history and one of the best of them is Abu Ghreb Prison. It tells a story of horror, torture, killing, crying, pain, mutilation, rape and hell for more than 35 years! Leave Abu Ghreb to the next generation to be seen by any one from all over the world!
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