Ghosts Of Abu Ghraib Analysis

What first contributed to these horrifying acts of abuse was the lack of command. Reports made by the Taguba made it clear that the higher and mid-level command are at fault for the lack of leadership, including the failures to enforce standards and accountability, to supervise adequately, and enforce the Geneva Conventions Guidelines. The Geneva Convention is a law that prohibits torture, outrages upon personal dignity, and humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees (Ghosts of Abu Ghraib). This law was set in place in order to protect human rights. The government claimed that this law does not apply to Al-Qaida, because they did not sign this contract when it was written, but not every single one of those Iraqis are affiliated with …show more content…
Ken Davis an American soldiers that was interviewed for the documentary Ghosts of Abu Ghraib said that he asked other soldiers what were the rules of engaging with other Iraqis and they responded with “if it looks like and enemy, shoot it.” Just because they look like the enemy, it does not mean that they are the …show more content…
This comment proves that the Iraqi prisoners were easily seen as scapegoats. The problem with this is that fact that the military train people to engage in aggression. Not everyone can control their aggression; in fact, there are numerous cases in which it can get out of hand under the pressure if an authoritarian figure. A great example of this would be the Stanford Prison experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo. In this experiment 24 college students were divided into the roles of Prisoner and Guard and put in a prison-like environment in the basement of the Psychology department at Stanford University. The experiment was supposed to last for two weeks, but the abuse that was inflicted on the prisoners by the guards was so brutal that had to terminate the experiment only after six days. The outcome of this experiment allows the people to get a little understanding of what went on in the Abu Ghraib Prison. The American soldiers conformed blindly to their assigned roles, as the guards did in the Stanford Prison Experiment. The guards could not help themselves; therefore they could not be blamed for their actions due to the fact those in lower part of the chain in command look to those in higher command to maintain order, set the tone, and be able to solve problems. Because there was no one taking charge of the situation, the guards