A ‘restrained” news article by Ian Cobain in the Guardian entitled “Camp Nama: British personnel reveal horrors of secret US base in Baghdad” explores in a little detail, what was known to every “allied’ soldier during the invasion and demolition of Iraq; that systematic brutal torture was ( and in Afghanistan -’is’) being used by the invaders to attempt to extract information from Saddam sympathisers , and subsequently Sunni/Salafist insurgents.
What is surprising is not that it occurred, but that now, somehow, British soldiers are now willing and able to confess their supposedly limited involvement in this brutality. The report makes clear that there was an ongoing method at a senior military and political level in the British to firstly, avoid any legal implications of breaching the Geneva Convention, and secondly to threaten or cajole those who attempted to speak out.
Perhaps there is some misguided belief by those in power in the US and UK that enough time has passed for these abuses to appear as some historical anomaly. The reality is that both UK and US soldiers are well trained in viciousness, brutality and torture to those who they see as “other”- whether its the “commies’ in Korea, “charlie’ in Vietnam, “gooks” or “towel-heads”; the language is all the same- to de-humanise and legitimise inhuman behavior.
What might be hoped for now is that British police will now immediately round up those military officers and politicians who would likely have been party to this abuse, and put them before a court of law to be tried as innocent before being proven guilty for complicity in murder and torture. Is it going to happen?…..yeah right…
New Antarctica 