Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

Last night, I saw the documentary, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib. I didn't see or hear anything I hadn't expected to see or hear, but what stayed with me were some of the remarks made by participating soldiers. Specialist Sabrina Harman appears, smiling, in several of the horrible photographs. After one of them was shown, she explained: "It was nothing personal; I just always smile for a picture." Right. After you've wrapped a prisoner in ice or forced him to stay up for six nights in a row or tied him up, naked, by his hands, you want to look perky for that digital moment. (You can see Specialist Harman smiling for a picture here).

Another soldier talked about the day there was a prison riot. "Hey," he says he told the prisoners, "calm down. We're upset, too, you know."

It boggles the mind.

One prisoner tells how the guards let his father die. Another says that the American soldiers not only dragged his family to prison, but smashed their belongings and stole their gold and money. As terrible as the prison images are, the non-prison images are even more chilling. The moment that sickened me the most was once again seeing a smiling Rumsfeld, publicly "thanking" MP Joe Darby for turning in the torture photo cds. Darby's act was, of course, anonymous, in order to protect him from harm or even death by retribution. Rumsfeld turned him into a living target.