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The killing of civilians in Iraq is, apparently, of so little consequence to the US occupation army that it does not even bother to keep records. Such is the measure of respect for human life and dignity. As for the pictures: those evil pictures, which open windows into the hearts of men and women—what do they reveal? When American and British soldiers commit barbarous acts upon helpless prisoners what does it say? Is their barbarity not a reflection of the nation in whose name they serve?
Western leaders have protested vociferously that the abuses in Abu Ghraib do not represent the true nature and values of the west. The abuses were simply ‘un-American’ according to President Bush. Citizens of a nation with high ideals may, it is true, sometimes fall short of those ideals, but many are now wondering, just how far short could so many people fall before fundamental questions about the western way of life should be asked? Slavoj Zizek, writing in the London Review of Books, speaks about: ‘disavowed beliefs, and obscene practices we pretend not to know about,’ which he calls the ‘flipside of public morality.’ He concludes that, ‘in the photographs of humiliated Iraqi prisoners, what we get is, precisely, an insight into American values.’
Slavoj Zizek’s perception is shared by an influential American writer who spoke poignantly during a typical July 4th Independence Day celebration in New York:
‘Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future…There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour… for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.’
These words were uttered back in 1852 by Frederick Douglass, a black man, who was describing the treatment of black slaves at the hands of their freedom loving white masters. During his speech he marvelled at the contradiction and hypocrisy of being invited to celebrate the words of Thomas Jefferson, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’, while his own people were still suffering slavery.
Two centuries later, the same disparity between America's vaunted ideals and her actions is evident, and this is the real story of Abu Ghraib that lies buried beneath the lurid details of photographs, courts-martial and resignations. It might be a shock for those in the west to learn that the Muslim world, though deeply angered, is not at all surprised by the humiliating pictures from Abu Ghraib. It is not that Muslims view the people of the west as being, due to their culture, inherently torturers and rapists. The outrage of the majority of British and American people would disprove that temptingly convenient notion. Nevertheless, the Muslims, looking from the outside in, have a perception of the west very different from that of those who are within the western cultural fold. The reasons are many, but they centre on bad experiences of colonialism and cultural imperialism.
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