Like many Americans, Reverend David Byrum has been struggling to reconcile the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers with his notion of what it is to be an American.
”I always took comfort in the fact that my country didn’t commit the types of atrocities that some others have,” he said. ”This hurts.”
In his sermon last Sunday, the Methodist minister tried to explain why US soldiers would stoop to abusing and torturing unarmed Iraqi prisoners in Baghdad’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
”It reflects the state of our culture,” he told the congregation, ”these people weren’t instilled with the proper values”.
His shock and revulsion at the photos of US troops gloating over naked Iraqis forced to assume sexual positions, or in mock torture poses, is shared by the overwhelming majority of Americans, according to the polls.
More than 70% of people interviewed for a USA Today/CNN poll published on Tuesday said they regarded the offences as serious, and unjustifiable under any circumstances.
That’s true even for some Americans who are still unsure whether to accept the pictures at face value.
”I cannot conceive of how anyone could do anything like that… it’s just beyond my comprehension,” said Kathryn Sliger (81) as she organised racks of clothes at a charity clothes store in this conservative Indiana town in the American heartland.
Still, it will take more than a handful of degrading photographs to convince this sceptical American.
”I don’t think we know the whole story. How do we know which ones are staged and which ones are real?” she said in an allusion to claims the photos were fake.
Others have moved beyond denial to punishment.
”They are representing our country… if they took it upon themselves to do this, they should be held accountable,” said retired schoolteacher Bette Brown.
”I just hope the world won’t judge us by what these few have done.”
But where some Americans feel a personal sense of betrayal at the way the soldiers in the photos behaved, others see the soul-searching and handwringing as an over-reaction orchestrated by the United State’s so-called liberal media establishment.
”We’re getting too worked up over it,” said Josh Mathews, a 21-year-old student who is hoping to pursue a career in law enforcement. ”Everyone is crying over it, but nobody is crying over the soldiers who are dying.
The abuses were ”unfortunate,” he conceded, ”but I’m not going to put them down over it”.
His sentiments were echoed by Harold Johnson as he took a break from mowing the lawn surrounding the National Guard Armoury.
”Where was all the uproar when those American contractors were dragged through the streets of Fallujah?,” he queried indignantly, recalling an incident in which a group of US contract employees were ambushed, murdered, and their mutilated bodies hung from a bridge in Falluja.
”There wasn’t nearly as much fuss.”
”I am sure a lot worse has happened to Americans,” the 51-year-old went on, recalling the sexual assaults inflicted on former US prisoner of war Jessica Lynch — an army private who was captured by Iraqi forces at the beginning of the US invasion of Iraq.
”I am sure Jessica Lynch was raped 20 to 30 times. I feel we’re not getting the full story,” he concluded.
”It’s a double standard,” seconded Gerald Austin, a 61-year-old unemployed steel worker. ”It’s a quagmire. We’re getting bogged down over there, and the military brass is so worried about opinion in the Arab world that they are fighting with one hand tied behind their back.” – Sapa-AFP