Torture on television: Prisoner abuse and the tarnishing of America

An Australian television program has released what the BBC calls "previously unpublished images showing apparent US abuse of prisoners in Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail in 2003".

The Washington Post reports here.

Do I even need to get into how sickening this is?

No. I'll defer to Andrew Sullivan: "These images should tear at the heart of everyone who cares about America, the West, and the honor of the vast majority of soldiers in the military, men and women ordered to implement policies that violate the most basic ethical rules and up-end decades of American decency. Just remember what this president has said: 'We do not torture.' That blood you see below will be explained away. More scapegoating of low-level grunts will occur. 'We do not torture.' Who are you going to believe? The president or your lying eyes?"

A few of my past posts on torture are here, here, here, and here.

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Let me repeat what I wrote back on June 24 of last year:

"WHAT I'M CALLING FOR HERE IS FOR THOSE WHO ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THIS ABUSE -- THE ENABLERS OF TORTURE -- TO APOLOGIZE TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE (AND TO THOSE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD WHO LOOK TO AMERICA FOR GUIDANCE AND INSPIRATION, AS WELL AS TO THOSE WHO REMAIN UNCONVINCED) FOR DEEPLY TARNISHING AMERICA'S IMAGE AND FOR DEGRADING THE VERY IDEA OF AMERICA AS A NATION COMMITTED TO LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL."

President Bush stands atop that hierarchy. These atrocities have occurred on his watch. Ultimately, he is responsible. He has allowed America's image to be tarnished.

This is his legacy.