Torture in Iraq: Britain's Shattered Morals

[ECH1969]

The British soldiers in Iraq were supposed to be the friendly occupiers in contrast to the more brutal Americans. That image has been shattered. The torture photos from Basra have destroyed any remaining illusions that the British are the moral superiors.

Now, however, with the publication of the Basra torture photographs, the drastic error of Blair's involvement in Iraq is becoming clear. It is a PR disaster for the British on par with America's Abu Ghraib scandal.

The images depict British soldiers smiling as they abuse Iraqi prisoners. They show forced homosexual acts and fellatio. They show beatings of bound prisoners, torture using forklifts, and prisoners repeatedly being forced to flash the "O.K." sign to the camera.

The incident caused immeasurable damage to the image previously enjoyed by Britain's troops in Iraq. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist group, notorious for its videotaped beheadings of kidnapped prisoners, has already threatened revenge.

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,338240,00.html

[bemildred]

1. British troops have a long history of brutality. Ask the Irish. nt

[Javaman]

3. True that, but also ask the folks in the middle east...

They were their loooong before we ever had the concept.

Read a little about how they treated the civilians when the Suez was built.

If anything we are the ones taking queues from them, not them from us.

[bemildred]

4. I was thinking of Kenya, among others, and the Carribean colonies,

and the slave trade, and the Opium wars, but that works.

I suppose one should not just blame the British though,
the other European nations more or less besmirched
themselves as well or better when they managed to get
some colonies to exploit.

It is one of the most annoying parts of the present
moral posturing coming from Europe and the USA right now
about the cartoon flap, that these are by far the most
exploitative, brutal, and militaristic nations in the
world during the last several hundred years, the cause
of the last two global conflicts, and countless minor
ones, to this day, and they have the gall, the chutzpah,
the arrogant visciousness to now lecture the peoples they
exploited, about human rights.

[KoKo]

2. Thanks for the repost of this....It's awful and went down the Memory Hole

Maybe the new film of British soldiers beating and tormenting Iraqi's will bring back attention to the fact that this has gone on and is still going on.

This article sums up nicely what some of us think of Blair/Bush and their fantasies of empire regained.

Boys with evil toys who want to turn the world back to another time.

[genie_weenie]

5. Why is acceptable to say they and Britian's (meaning all Brits inclusive)?

I don't know but, isn't this akin to saying they and Muslims for the rioters who burned down emabssies and issued death threats?