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Copyright (C) 2008-2009 David B. Axelrod |
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ABU
GHRAIB by
Dr. David B. Axelrod It
was Groucho Marx, the American comedian who said “I wouldn’t want to join
any club that would have me.” In college I was never a member of a fraternity.
In fact, my friends and I were likely to make fun of those who did join
“Greek” societies. Other than some small charitable projects they would
undertake, their single function seemed to be to join in meaningless and as
often sadistic little cliques and intermittently throw drinking parties.
When one explanation for the
infamous treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib referred to the “fraternity
like” atmosphere of the guards there, I wasn’t at all surprised. However, to
compare the behavior of the guards at the prison to that of fraternity members
misses a much bigger point. The tendency toward abuse of one group by another is
nothing particularly characteristic of American societies bearing Greek-lettered
names. Nor is it a particularly American thing for our present administration to
be encouraging such behavior. It is simply very consistent with human nature as
I have observed it in my sixty plus years not to mention my extensive readings
of history.
Understand that I, too, am only as moral as my courage allows. I have
walked away from abuse I have witnessed without doing anything to stop it. To
live in a complex society and not be complicit with its abuses is impossible.
There have been a number of occasions where I suffered abuses myself and was not
helped. Then there were times when I tried to do the right thing for others and
to my surprise it was often those I tried to assist who were angry with me. But
those are other stories.
I’m interested in the abuse I witnessed when I attempted to bring joy
to my fellow students in my own senior year of college. For me, that incident
would forever sober and educate me to the ways of humanity. Previous to that I
might have said abuse was the result of specific groups or perverse individuals.
Or I might have tried to blame one particular caste or color. What I learned was
the more basic nature of humanity.
For many years there had been a tradition of having a "spring day"
on our campus that was curtailed just before I entered college because the
celebration got out of control. A ban was instituted against drinking on campus
and with that, the spring celebration was also abolished. An underground
movement immediately sprang up to rekindle the spring celebration. For three
years after I arrived, we did what we could to hold a spring party but the
edicts and preventive measures issued by the administration prevailed. No spring
celebration.
Each year our efforts rose in complexity until my senior year when we
finally succeeded. The celebration was announced by a continuous ringing of the
Old Chapel bells. As everyone streamed out of classes at the signaled moment, a
small plane flew over and dropped leaflets instructing everyone to go to a
large rented meadow area near campus where our celebration would be held. A
flatbed truck rolled through campus with a band playing that led everyone like
the Pied Piper.
We were delighted that the
plan worked and it was particularly gratifying because it involved all the rival
and often vengeful groups of students, this time working together. The bell
ringing was accomplished by the “Greek societies” as was a general whisper
campaign informing students of the impending day. The fly-over and leaflets were
the work of ROTC, the Reserve Officer Training Corps on our campus. The
athletes—jocks—arranged for the rental of the grounds and with that provided
some “security.” We, the independent students who worked in little groups of
oddballs, artists and writers, provided the entertainment.
It all went brilliantly and hundreds
upon hundreds of students quickly filled the meadow to picnic, drink, celebrate.
My little group went off to our own private party at a nearby house. It was
only when we returned to the meadow that we saw the scene that still is fixed in
my mind.
Bloodied students were streaming from the meadow. An ambulance was making its
way up a narrow dirt road. As we followed it, the flatbed truck that had brought
the band, it’s windows broken, was abandoned at the roadside. When the
band stopped playing for a break it was attacked and by angry students so that
the band had to make an escape.
As I approached the center of the celebration, I saw drunken students
standing at the edge of a crowd. They were throwing bottles of beer high into
the air to see where they would come down, striking those at the center of the
crowd. Injured students were all around, together with those vomiting, crying or
just stunned. This was the culmination of our setting our fellow students free.
Given a little power or just the chance to do anything under the cloak of
anonymity, I believe any one or any group can go mad. It was not a
“fraternity” atmosphere that prevailed at Abu Ghraib. Nor is it a
particularly insidious American intelligence or military plan that is at work in
I see this cruelty daily. An American author, Jules Feiffer, referred to
all the daily acts of cruelty as “little murders.” They eat away at us as
surely as a virus can destroy our flesh. I want to think such behavior can be
eliminated, that a finer nature can prevail, and yet there is no rational
basis to believe that people will ever behave any differently. Individuals in
moments of clarity, with a strong will can resist poking some helpless creature.
People who think and work hard against the tendency to mistreat anyone
not like themselves, can behave more kindly.
I am not at all surprised that a young woman who didn’t do well in a
school that didn’t offer much for thinking clearly anyway, would wind up
holding a dog leash that led to a naked man. If we had handed out dog leashes at
the meadow, someone would have been naked at the end of one by the end of the
day. Just as surely, others could have been stacked naked in pyramids and
photographed.
The lucky ones hold the leash. The unlucky ones shudder in humiliation.
Others just slink away. As for me and my crowd, no one was ever punished
for the riot our party became. The administration was just grateful it didn’t
happen on campus. The incident slipped into history together with the “panty
raids” of the past—wherein male students rioted and broke the windows of the
girls’ residence halls to grab underwear from if not off women students.
The world leaders, political and spiritual leaders, the media which use
the abuse at Abu Ghraib to condemn us, of course are not missing the point. They
see our moment of public weakness and are capitalizing on it. They also should
know they are no different than
This, of course, in no ways condones or forgives such cruelty. A case
could be made that George Bush, himself a member of a Yale College secret
society, may be more inclined to encourage such behavior. Certainly there is
evidence that the present administration has worked to justify the vicious
treatment of people as a means of “fighting terrorism.” Knowing evil does
not mean accepting let alone promoting it.
I am simply explaining how I, an American, have come to understand the
actions of the soldiers who do this dirty work. One might ask why dirty work
must be done. Indeed, American’s have been at odds with the French over the
invasion of
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