There are
some voices out there who seem to be advancing the notion that certain Americans are being disingenuous with their outrage over the Abu Ghraib torture scandal because they did not express an equivalent outrage over Saddam Hussein's similar tyrannical behavior. It is hypocritical, they seem to argue, to complain so vociferously about Abu Ghraib when they did not complain as loudly about Saddam.
Let me just say, this is a bullshit argument.
As U.S. citizens, we have every right to be outspoken and outraged about the way American troops have tortured prisoners in Iraq and elsewhere. Indeed, we should be sickened. We should be disgusted. We should be enraged. As American citizens, we have an obligation to watch and scrutinize our government and to express a greater outrage over the transgressions of our government than another country's government. After all, our government is a reflection of us and we, ultimately, hold much of the responsibility for its actions.
In every situation on the world stage, the U.S. should be held to the highest standard. We cannot proclaim ourselves a moral world leader and a model for other countries if we allow our military to torture fellow human beings. We cannot proclaim ourselves a shining beacon of light and hope for oppressed people throughout the world when we rape and torture and murder. We cannot say the American way is the right way when we anally rape prisoners with chemical lights, murder detainees, rape women and young boys, force prisoners to rape one another, strap saddles on 70 year old women and ride them like donkeys, or force prisoners to masturbate into the mouths of other prisoners.
Maybe it bears repeating for some: This is not moral leadership; this is moral depravity. America is supposed to be better than this.
To say that America must live up to no higher a standard than that of terrorists, or that of brutal dictatorships, or that of murderers is not only insanity, it is infuriating. If Jim Inhofe or Rush Limbaugh believe that we need be no better than Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, then--to take a page from their book--they can get the fuck out of my country. They have no business being here in America, enjoying the freedom and opportunity of this country, if they believe we have no obligation to aspire to a higher standard than the most base, cruel people on the planet.
We here in America should be setting the highest possible standard for ourselves, not lowering the bar below our knees. We should be aspiring to be moral leaders, displaying the utmost humility and kindness to the world around us; not proclaiming that we're not so bad because we apologized for torturing and murdering our victims, unlike those nasty terrorists who murder without saying sorry. If Rush Limbaugh thinks these were nothing more than school boy pranks, then he can go fuck himself. If Jim Inhofe is outraged by the outrage, then he can go fuck himself. If Joe Lieberman thinks that the fact that terrorists didn't apologize for attacking America has anything to do with Abu Ghraib, then he can go fuck himself.
I realize my language is coarse and my argument unrefined, but these people are implying that America has no obligation to be better than terrorists, dictators and murderers. The moment that argument is made, I have no use for their opinion. They have completely bankrupted themselves of any legitimacy or morality and I am left with only one response: Go fuck yourself. America is better than that and America is better than you.
(Originally posted on my blog, Nightmares For Sale)