Michael Cannon Jr., author of "Abu Ghraib: Reflections In The Looking Glass." Gave a talk to a group that was televised on C-SPAN's Book TV this weekend. An ordained Presbyterian minister, he served as a chaplain in Iraq.
Before I relay some notes I took on the event, I want to direct you to a religious website on which the author, as a serving Reserve Army Chaplain, submitted a photo of a group from the 13th Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) battalion in Iraq from April 2003.
Apparently Cannon learned a thing or to from the battalion he photographed that might have inspired the style of his book. And the title of the book itself seems sprung from the mind of a retired agent of the CIA. Cannon even evinces disdain for the 60's generation.(However, there is no co-authorship credit)
(Scroll down to group photo of soldiers holding up the U.S. flag.)
http://www.pca-mna.org/multiply/multiply2003/fall%202003/fall2003.htmKarl Rove's recent comments have attempted to frame Democrats as weak on terrorism, which given the upcoming release of new information on torture, will also serve to mean "weak on handling terrorists." IE, torture.
He has lied and said Democrats wanted to give the terrorists subpoenas and therapy sessions. What Karl hasn't said outright is that he wants to torture them, and he wants you to get used to it.
Just a moment to point out that Rove's comments come from a party that ignored terrorism warnings from the previous Democratic Administration (among many others) and whose own Republican Attorney General John Ashcroft petulantly said he no longer wanted to see anymore warnings about terrorism cross his desk the summer before 9/11.
Around the time of Rove's risky and inflammatory move we heard, and continue to hear more and more messages about how we aren't tough enough on terrorists and prisoners.
We have concurrently seen the downplaying of torture and prisoner's facilities. For one, we had the spectacle of Rep. Duncan Hunter's presentation on what he imagined to be luxurious meals served to prisoners.
Hunter provided the fruitcake.
As part of this campaign I also include the orchestrated pressure put on Sen. Dick Durbin to apologize for comments he made that were framed by Republicans to appear as an insult to our troops, when in reality they were a castigation of the administration's policies on torture.
It appears the administration means to keep torture as a tool for now and the future. Even after the coming release of further evidence of outrageously inhuman torture, they will fight to convince Americans it is not so bad, and a necessary evil in a time of war. The manipulation of the American psyche is in full swing as regards torture.
Which brings us to Cannon's speech about his book.
Cannon claimed "It is phenomenal how well the war is going."
He said the torture in Iraq is being perpetrated by a few reservists and that neither Bush nor the military had anything to do with it.
He nevertheless felt the need to say "Putting women's underwear on prisoner's heads pales in comparison to 9/11."
Which not only reveals a willfull ignorance of the list of abuses occurring, (and remember, he wrote a book on Abu Ghraib) but a lack or disregard for the Muslim culture as well. Of course torture does indeed take into consideration one's culture and what way is best to degrade the individual. I could come up with an equivalent example for Mr. Cannon that--had he endured it himself--would help him to understand. But I will refrain.
He later also listed Saddam Hussein's methods of torture, Acid vats, etc. (perhaps by choice, he omitted mentioning the rape rooms) again stating that "panties on the head" pale by comparison, and again failing to complete the list of what methods have been used by the U.S. in Iraq.
"Panties on the head" seems to be his meme for replacing the word "torture."
So on one hand he's saying the administration had no hand in the torture, while on the other he's saying it's not really so bad. Why else imply that punishment for 9/11 might need something less "pale" by comparison? Electro-shock? Rape? Beating? where I come from, that's called a "mind f*ck."
And of course there is this: IRAQ HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 9/11. But Cannon attempted to build a case of moral equivalence between the two
and our use of torture. or as Cannon calls it, "Panties on the head."
In a question period after his talk, a gentleman stood and said "In WWII we had the moral character to see it to the end no matter what our troops did." --that's correct, he actually said "No matter what our troops did." So apparently that man has no need of being converted, he has already approved of torture. And Cannon must certainly realize the fact that an overwhelming majority of the time, our troops do what leadership tells them to.
Cannon implied that "herd mentality" is really the cause for the outcry against Abu Ghraib, and suggests that we "should be changing how we view morality."
Indeed. That is exactly what Mr. Cannon and defenders of torture are about the business of doing these days. according to them, because of 9/11, anything now goes. Morally, we should be allowed to do anything because we are dealing with people capable of 9/11. Even, one must assume, if the subject of torture and imprisonment is innocent, as they are in a majority of cases. And they will say Democrats don't understand it.
We will hear that duplicitous invitation to moral self-decay for both ourselves and for our nation over and over again. That will be the message planted in many a story from columnists, Rants from pundits, comments from Rove and his personal Tinker-toy set otherwise known as the brain of George W. Bush. We will hear it from all the usual suspects.
It is not merely meant to deflect from the Downing Street Memo, Iraq, nor any of the other scandals that go begging for fearless uncorrupted newspaper editors. It is meant to have Americans accept torture as an American way of dealing with the world, both here and abroad. As author Cannon said; it is meant to "change how we view morality".
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