Commenting on my post regarding Iraqi Prison Abuse, Latook writes:

“WHEN IN ROME” what’s the problem? This happened in Iraq, it happens all of the time. It’s their way. If it happened in the US, then it would be abuse. If we have to obey the laws and customs of a host country then all of the laws and customs should apply.

That is a sentiment that I’ve seen elsewhere but it is fundamentally flawed in that Americans are obliged to follow local laws in so far as they do not violate American law. We have to follow both. So, if something is legal in one country that is illegal by US law, then we can’t break the US law.

However, in this case, the abuse of prisoners is NOT legal in Iraq. It never has been. It is NOT their “way” as you say.

One of the justifications the Bush Administration made for destabilizing and replacing the Iraqi Regime was to make things there better . . . that includes treating prisoners with basic dignity . . . they don’t have to be in luxury facilities but they do have basic human rights.

Fair and humane treatment of prisoners of war is a basic tenet of international law. War does not justify maltreatment. The soldiers who obeyed orders to humiliate, shame, torture, and even kill these prisoners have violated international law and are guilty of conduct unbecoming of a member of the United States Armed Forces. Soldiers are expected to disobey orders that knowingly violate the law.

The fact that civilians and CIA operatives may have been usurping the chain of command makes it worse.

The sentiment that it is somehow okay for Americans to torture Iraqis because the former regime did it and it’s not taking place on American soil is reprehensible to the nth degree.

Even in the face of the most adverse of circumstances, we have to adhere to the values we claim to be protecting. When we resort to torture, facism, and violence, we become no better than the animals we claim the enemy to be.

There seems to be a Machiavellian idea growing in post-911 America . . . the idea that the ends of winning the war justifies the means. This is pure and utter nonsense.

If the American people truly accept that sort of thinking, then we’d might as well burn the flag, the constitution, and everything else that generations of Americans have believed and skip on down the road to our own brand of imperialistic facist dictatorship. Right now, we are the closest to abandoning our Bill of Rights that we have been in a very long time . . . when Americans accept the torture or imprisonment or even the detaining of others because it’s not “us” but “them” then the nail goes a little further into the lid of the coffin of freedom . . . we should worry about this cavalier attitude and we should eliminate it very very quickly.

Yes, they are prisoners. Yes, they are the enemy. However, this does not change who we are or our obligations to law and the spirit of our land.