by James Glaser
July 25, 2005

When Army Specialist Joseph M Darby, blew the whistle on our torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison, he turned over thousands of photographs and videos of prisoners being abused, set on by dogs, and sexually humiliated.

Ever since that time Washington and the Bush administration has done everything they can to keep that record of American crimes secret. Now the New York Times, in a report written by Kate Zernike, says, "Lawyers for the Defense Department are refusing to cooperate with a Federal Judge's order to release secret photographs and videotapes related to the Abu Ghraib prison scandal."

Larry Neumeister, of the Associated Press reports, "The government raised its challenge to releasing pictures and videos from Abu Ghraib prison on the day it was supposed to show the exhibits to a judge presiding over the case."

This is nothing new for the Bush administration, which has tried to keep so many things secret, but these photos and videos have already been released to members of Congress. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon said, "I expected that these pictures would be very hard on the stomach lining and it was significantly worse than anything that I had anticipated. Take the worst case and multiply it several times over."

When Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., saw what our soldiers had done to the Iraqis, he said, "I don't know how the hell these people got into our Army."

Rep, Jane Harman D-Calif., said what shocked her most, was a video showing a handcuffed prisoner beating his head against a wall, and another that showed a group of men masturbating.

Nobody really wants to see these photos and videos, but we all should. We should see what George Bush and his leadership has done to our troops and to the prisoners they were in charge of.

America has committed some horrendous crimes. Just because George Bush does not want us to see what he has done, does not mean those crimes were not committed. The people we tortured know what we did to them and I believe that has contributed to the power of the insurgency in Iraq.

We can not understand how there can be so many suicide bombers in Iraq and I bet the Iraqis can not understand how there can be so many American torturers. You torture a man long enough and he will do anything, even explode his body, if he thinks it will give him a chance for revenge. Think what you would be willing to do, if someone did to your son or daughter, what Americans did to hundreds or maybe thousands of Iraqis.

The United States has done something very sick in Iraq and we as a nation should face up to that fact, so it does not happen in the future. We should see those photos, so that we know what we are capable of, if we have a leader that allows these things. George Bush is the Commander-in-Chief and he has set the tone for this war and that tone is a sick one.