Last week, the CBS published several pictures which caused the indignation of people throughout the world.
The pictures detailed the abuses commited against Iraq prissoners by Coalition Forces mainly in the same gaols that Saddam had used before.
Many people would say (and rightly so) that these abuses happen everywhere and that we should not make a big scandal of this given the state of our prissons and the police conduct in other countries which is much worse than what the pictures displayed.
However, one thing that I find very shocking about the abuses told by ex-prisoners and the graphical evidences, is the explicit way to attack and target the cultural values and traditions of the Iraqi men, in which they were formed to make them feel humillated and moraly destroyed.
Something which caught my atention is the deliberate presence and sometimes active participation of women in acts of humilliation against Iraqi detainees, the degradation and mockery of the manhood of the detainees by making them perform homosexual and female acts, which is the worst way of destroying the dignity of a man who comes from a Muslim background.
I do not doubt the professional and clean concience of Colin Powell and those who have stated that only a handful of soldiers commited these abuses and that most US soldiers have a high preparation, discipline and patriotic feelings. But in the case of Britain for example, serious studies show that most of its effectives are former street bullies or men with a very violent background. Something similar can be said about the smaller countries participation in the coalition.
Unlike Cuba or Iran or Syria, who are always under international scrutiny and sanction by the international organizations, no one has the power to reprimand or punish Israel or the Iraq Occupation Army for any of this things.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040510fa_fact
