Following the herd
The accusations did vary slightly, from bullying to mistreatment to injury, but this was where it became more important to read between the lines.
While bullying in the playground or the workplace can be an extremely unpleasant experience, occasionally requiring drastic corrective measures, in a war-zone with civilians as well as soldiers being slaughtered daily, it can hardly be considered the most heinous of crimes. Similarly, the term 'mistreatment' is so subjective as to be almost meaningless in a military context. And although injury may be more definable, the reported stories carried no details.
Nevertheless, the fact that it was reported at all immediately threw Poland onto the back foot, with the President, the Defense Minister, the spokesperson for the Polish Army Chief of Staff, and the Polish-led division spokesperson all wheeled out to refute the allegations. Their comments were in general wholly predictable, and not worth repeating here, except for that of the spokesperson for the Polish Army Chief of Staff, who said, "I don't know if this is an attempt on the part of the U.S. media to water down responsibility for what happened in the Abu Ghraib prison."
Although refreshingly blunt, this sentiment doesn't stand up to scrutiny. In the unmitigated disaster that the occupation has become, the last three months have provided the world with a crushing amount of evidence of American military brutality. The prisoner abuse story was just one more facet of this, and, after running for a month and producing some of the most disturbing images of recent times, the name Abu Ghraib was finally fading from the news editors' radars. A more likely explanation is that a very keen AP hack in Iraq heard a rumor and thought he was on to something, only to find it was not what he had expected. And, of course, it wasn't, for the very next day the story had disappeared altogether.
This flash in the pan is indicative of the imbalance which still exists in the reportage coming out of Iraq; for example, in the same week, two Polish soldiers were killed in action, but this story got not one-tenth of the coverage. So instead of genuine Polish sacrifice in George W. Bush's Vietnam, and in what can only be a sheep-like intent to follow the herd on the part of news editors, the rest of the world got to read about a vague, unsubstantiated and ultimately unprovable claim of prisoner abuse.
The practical upshot was that for one day last week, Poland's name was once again dragged through the mud.
While bullying in the playground or the workplace can be an extremely unpleasant experience, occasionally requiring drastic corrective measures, in a war-zone with civilians as well as soldiers being slaughtered daily, it can hardly be considered the most heinous of crimes. Similarly, the term 'mistreatment' is so subjective as to be almost meaningless in a military context. And although injury may be more definable, the reported stories carried no details.
Nevertheless, the fact that it was reported at all immediately threw Poland onto the back foot, with the President, the Defense Minister, the spokesperson for the Polish Army Chief of Staff, and the Polish-led division spokesperson all wheeled out to refute the allegations. Their comments were in general wholly predictable, and not worth repeating here, except for that of the spokesperson for the Polish Army Chief of Staff, who said, "I don't know if this is an attempt on the part of the U.S. media to water down responsibility for what happened in the Abu Ghraib prison."
Although refreshingly blunt, this sentiment doesn't stand up to scrutiny. In the unmitigated disaster that the occupation has become, the last three months have provided the world with a crushing amount of evidence of American military brutality. The prisoner abuse story was just one more facet of this, and, after running for a month and producing some of the most disturbing images of recent times, the name Abu Ghraib was finally fading from the news editors' radars. A more likely explanation is that a very keen AP hack in Iraq heard a rumor and thought he was on to something, only to find it was not what he had expected. And, of course, it wasn't, for the very next day the story had disappeared altogether.
This flash in the pan is indicative of the imbalance which still exists in the reportage coming out of Iraq; for example, in the same week, two Polish soldiers were killed in action, but this story got not one-tenth of the coverage. So instead of genuine Polish sacrifice in George W. Bush's Vietnam, and in what can only be a sheep-like intent to follow the herd on the part of news editors, the rest of the world got to read about a vague, unsubstantiated and ultimately unprovable claim of prisoner abuse.
The practical upshot was that for one day last week, Poland's name was once again dragged through the mud.
