Abu Ghraib Vs. History's Top Ten Abuse Scandals
By Gordon Bloyer (05/21/04)
Top Ten List of Abuse
Our recent obsession with the prisoner abuse in Iraq has made me wonder, just where does this stand in terms of historical prisoner mistreatment? I have tried making a top ten list of prisoner abuse.
1. Hitler’s death camps.
2. Stalin’s gulags.
3. Bataan Death March.
4. North Korea prison camps.
5. Rape of Nanking.
6. Hanoi Hilton
7. Spanish Inquisition.
8. Siberian prison.
9. Devils Island
10. Saddam’s prisons.
I can’t even rate them, there are so many. What about Andersonville, Japan’s medical experiments, Nazi medical experiments, China’s prisons, Cuba’s prisons, Pol Pot, Ghengis Khan, Syria’s prisons, Egypt’s prisons, French prisons, Haiti, Nicaragua, Pakistan, and on and on. I can’t even remember them all. Real torture, real agony, real atrocities, real brutality. The Iraq prison doesn’t even make the top 1000.
Our news media should report the story but it needs to add perspective. The story is minute when put in proper context. The story belonged on page one on day one, it now needs to be relegated to the back of the paper. The people are being charged and sentenced. There is no cover-up. We are doing this for ourselves, not to satisfy the rest of the World. We do not need to apologize, we are doing the right thing.
I am most disappointed in Senator John McCain. He has said others judge us by how we treat our prisoners. That is nonsense. They have no right to judge us. The countries that are complaining are on the list of far greater prison abuse than anything we have EVER done. He was really tortured at the hands of one of the most sadistic regimes ever. I am sure the Al Qaeda terrorists are shaking in their sandals, that someone might put female panties on their head. If we sent any message to our enemies, it is that we are wimps when it comes to torture.
It is time to get over this minor abuse story and get on with telling the story of the abuse that is happening every day around the World. We need to be united to stop it.
We don’t need senators, newspaper editors, and presidential wannabes exaggerating this story for their own gain. The people that do this are going to pay a price in the future. We will remember.
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