Op-Ed: Getting to the Bottom of the Prison Abuse Scandal
Every few weeks we are confronted with fresh revelations about the mistreatment of detainees held in American facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. The latest are reports that as many as 100 detainees were “hidden” from Red Cross inspectors visiting the prison at Abu Ghraib. This conduct is unacceptable if we are to have any hope of maintaining our moral authority in the war on terrorism.
If we are to get to the bottom of this still-emerging scandal, we should support an independent, bipartisan commission, modeled after the 9/11 Commission, to look into the systemic failures that led to these abuses. Only a commission like this, one endowed with the power to compel testimony from all elements of the government and the military, will be able to determine how the system broke down so disastrously, and get answers to some of the most basic questions: How could this happen? How do we keep it from happening again?
Some might ask why we should dwell on such a dark and painful episode, especially with close to a dozen investigations evaluating various aspects of the scandal, when the people purportedly responsible for the horrendous images from Abu Ghraib are being sent to jail, and when the conditions there have improved so much since the scandal came to light. In fact, all the partial examinations to date point to the need for a comprehensive investigation of all the relevant factors. While I understand the desire to put this all behind us, we must not rest until we are absolutely certain that nothing like this can ever happen again.
It is essential that the world be convinced that America has a morally sound position in the war on terrorism. When Americans abuse Iraqis in the very prison where Saddam Hussein’s goons killed, tortured and humiliated his enemies, our moral authority is lost. We must be rigorous and thorough in our response.
You’ve heard this before, but it bears repeating: The war on terrorism is first and foremost a battle of ideas. The military, homeland security, and intelligence components of the war are crucial. But these alone can never be decisive unless we win the battle of ideas. Terrorist acts are merely a tactic employed by our enemy—fundamentalist extremists who manipulate and exploit anti-Western and anti-American sentiments. Their greatest weapons are the desperate and disillusioned souls laying down their lives fighting against what they believe we stand for.
To win this war, we must convince them that this great society respects the values of openness and accountability, freedom and human rights, and the capacity of each generation to be a little wiser than the last. These are our nation’s greatest strengths and our most important contributions to global society.
More importantly, these fundamentally American principles are our best assets in the war on terrorism. We must guard them as vigilantly as we would any other precious commodity or strategic asset. We must fix whatever needs fixing or these cherished principles may very well be tarnished forever.
