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Political |
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A quagmire creates a difficult, precarious, or
entrapping situation. A quagmire creates a situation causing you to sink
each day, struggling to get out. Your struggle causes you to become more
deeply entrapped. We are in a quagmire in Iraq. The situation at the Abu Ghraib prison places us in a soft miry land that shakes and yields under our feet, we are struggling with no way out. As the Abu Ghraib controversy unfolds, we are
seeing more photographs, more abuses, and more evidence that we
conducted ourselves in a despicable inhumane manner. The abuses are so
severe, the President of the United States reacted in an appearance in
West Virginia on Thursday by saying “I have been disgraced.” Marine
General Peter Pace, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told Congress the abuses violate
the Geneva Convention. Mr. Wolfowitz described some of the acts as
inhumane. The abuses are further described with the words humiliation,
rape, sexual abuse, shocking, and beyond human decency. Since the first shocking photographs, we learned
there are videos of soldiers engaged in sexual acts in the presence of,
or with, Iraqi detainees. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warns there
is more photographic evidence of more severe treatment of Iraqi
detainees. The worst is yet to come. The situation created by a few is enraging the
Arab world. The image of America is tarnished. The “terrorist” acts
in Abu Ghraib give terrorists a new “excuse” to kill, taking
terrorism to lower levels than before. Terrorists retaliated by beheading an innocent
American, a man who did nothing at Abu Ghraib. Terrorism now has a new
weapon, an excuse to kill because America is hypocritical, because
America treats Arabs with disdain and disrespect. We inadvertently
provided terrorism with a weapon, a “sorry” excuse to kill. The acts
at Abu Ghraib place many lives in jeopardy. Abu Ghraib is rubbing salt
into the wound. The abuses demonstrate a failure in the military
chain of command, a failure aggravated by reports that the American Red
Cross, and the military itself, reported these abuses. The reports
reached the military in enough time for our leaders to take corrective
action. The reports did not, however, make it up the chain of command.
Moreover, the Red Cross was ignored. The chain of command broke down. We are sinking into a quagmire. Those in
leadership positions must take responsibility for their failure to lead,
their failure to command, and their failure to report. The leaders, and
those they command, placed the lives of the American Military in danger,
the war on terrorism has been dealt a severe blow—a blow that provides
terrorism with an excuse to kill. We must use every effort to regain the
high ground, holding those committing these acts responsible. Most
important, the leadership of our military, and our country, must be held
responsible. We cannot allow scapegoating to occur. We must insist that
our leadership be accountable for the failures at Abu Ghraib. Otherwise,
we will sink deeper into the soft miry land that is now entrapping us. Abu Ghraib tarnishes our image; it places our
country in an indefensible position. The Abu Ghraib controversy shows we
are more entrenched in a soft miry land that is shaking and yielding
under our feet, it shows we are stuck in a…. Quagmire. Stuart F. James
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