Prisoner abuse has roots in the contempt the coalition has shown for rule of law, writes Edward Horgan
The depths of depravity reached by some US soldiers in Iraq seem more shocking because of the sexual perversion involved. Yet what has been happening in Iraq from the outset of this conflict amounts to a series of acts of depravity committed by a Western power and its compliant allies.
The abuse of prisoners of war, while dreadful, has to be put in the context of the far greater war crimes resulting in the unlawful killing of up to 10,000 innocent civilians. Allegations of similar abuses by British soldiers at Basra are perhaps even more worrying for British politicians and military leaders.
The British army does contain some units with a reputation for bad behaviour. The Queen's Lancashire Regiment (QLR) is not one of these. It is a 300-year-old respected infantry regiment, and I worked closely with them in central Bosnia for several months in 1996.
I was very impressed with their behaviour and conduct. If soldiers of such a unit misbehaved then the roots of the problem lie deeper. It indicates serious leadership failures. It may become another appalling vista. As a matter of honour, it may even lead to the resignation of the QLR commanding officer.
It is possible for soldiers to be given the unwelcome task of being placed in charge of difficult prisoners, without those soldiers committing gross misconduct.
Throughout the 1970s the Curragh military prison, staffed by Irish Army personnel, was used to detain a wide variety of prisoners convicted of criminal and paramilitary offences, due to damage to Mountjoy Prison. I was one of the officers who had direct responsibility for those prisoners, and we took our responsibility very seriously.
I recall being reminded by an old military police sergeant major that my safe-custody responsibilities included preventing the prisoners from harming themselves. Of course, there were daily problems with prisoners and staff cooped up in a small Victorian building. Unusually, however, during this 10-year period there were no suicides by any of the prisoners serving sentences at the Curragh, in spite of the fact that many had drug problems.
Officers in charge in such situations have an absolute responsibility to ensure that their subordinates do not abuse the prisoners in any way. They have a duty to know what is going on and not so much to punish any offenders but, more importantly, to prevent abuse taking place at all. Clearly this did not happen in Baghdad and Basra.
The rules of law must be applied most strictly to those who have custody of powerless prisoners. The rules of law have been abused in the case of Iraq at the very highest levels. Low-ranking soldiers who will be punished for this abuse are already becoming victims - the real culprits at higher levels will escape.
The United Nations itself was in gross breach of its own UN Charter throughout the 1990s when it imposed genocidal sanctions on the people of Iraq, leading to the deaths of almost half a million children. The governments of the US and Britain broke the UN Charter by invading and occupying Iraq in March 2003. The Government broke the UN Charter and the Hague Convention on Neutrality when it allowed the US military to use Shannon Airport for the transit of troops.
With this highest level of abuse of the rule of law, it is almost inevitable that some of the depravities now being revealed did occur. It seems clear from what has been revealed that many of those put in charge of the prisoners were unsuitable.
In such a case the responsibility for the crimes rests with those who chose the guards and failed to supervise them. It would be wrong and unjust to claim that all US and British soldiers behave like this. Only a small minority do so. However, the responsibility lies with leadership at all levels to control this evil minority. The defence that some soldiers were only obeying orders may even have some validity.
From a US point of view the scale of this disaster is immense. They were already in serious trouble in Iraq, but not yet as deeply bemired as they became in Vietnam. The prison scandal is likely to mean that the long-term damage to US reputation in the world will be far greater than that caused by Vietnam.
While the domino theory being cited as justification for the Vietnam War proved to be a myth, as did weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the key difference between Vietnam and Iraq is that Vietnam was, and is, relatively peripheral. Iraq is central to the most volatile region in the world and the oil energy resources of the world. US failure in Iraq, already a de-facto failure, has very significant implications for the US and its small band of allies, including Ireland. They have abused international law, national laws, and the basic concepts of morality. There will be a price to be paid.
Unfortunately, the people of Iraq are being asked to bear most of the costs in human terms. Heads will have to roll at US leadership level. Donald Rumsfeld has presided over the pillage and attempted privatisation of Iraq, including the prisons, and has attempted to place American occupation forces beyond the rule of law. If as seems likely, President Bush fails to fire Rumsfeld, then the people of the US will have the democratic opportunity to fire George Bush next November.
The US now has three stark options in Iraq: to cut and run at the end of June 2004, hang in until after presidential elections in November, or stay for over 10 years as it did in Vietnam. At this point it would be a courageous decision to admit defeat, admit the US was wrong, and pull out in June. With the dearth of courageous people in the US administration, this option is unlikely.
All other options will cost US soldiers lives, and up to 30 times that number of Iraqi lives, if the Vietnam War and the Iraq War so far are indicative. If the US adopts the third option it will become a prisoner of the Iraq War. It is already too late to say sorry. The dead cannot be brought back.
• Edward Horgan, a former Army commandant, served as deputy governor of the Curragh military prison in the 1970s. He is a peace activist