Campus reacts to Iraqi prison photographs

For the past few weeks, photographs of naked Iraqi prisoners, some hooded, some tied together and piled on top of one another have continued to be the center of media attention.\n"I think it reflects badly on the Bush administration," said Jeffrey C. Isaac, James H. Rudy Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science. "It is one of the many examples of the way the administration did not properly plan for the aftermath of the war. It also reflects badly on the soldiers involved, and is indicative of certain kinds of racism that exist in the armed forces and in our society," \nA CNN and Time Magazine poll showed Sunday that President Bush's approval had dropped to 46 percent. The political ripples created by the Iraqi prisoner abuse photographs were seen as a factor. \n"I think the issue is being politicized," said Rawand Darwesh, a Intensive English Program student from Iraq. \nRawand said he believes the perpetrators should be punished but added that such abuses should be investigated in other countries also and the media should not focus solely on Iraq.\n"Some of the prisoners may be innocent victims, but some of them are criminals who have raped women and killed people," he said. "There is no nation that is a 100 percent political prisoner free and I am totally surprised at the amount of attention given to it by the media." \nThe prisoner abuse is seen as a shock to most because such photographs are usually not seen when a war is still in progress, said Viviane Faleh-Hanna, a Ph.D. student in criminal justice. She said during a war it is both the innocent and the guilty who are victims and these pictures are one of the many faces of war. \n"Different nations would view it differently," Faleh-Hanna said.\nThe reaction in Iraq and the rest of the Arabic-speaking world is very negative, political science professor Jeffrey Hart said.\n"Even in the U.S. and allied countries, the reaction is negative because we are all disappointed about the behavior of U.S. military police and their intelligence commanders," he said.\nThe Bush administration based its invasion of Iraq on disarming the country of weapons of mass destruction and ending human rights abuses in the country.\n"A quick prosecution of the wrongdoers will reduce the damage, but nevertheless, the damage has been done," Hart said. \nAnother point of contention is the language used by the media. When U.S. civilians or soldiers are killed or beaten it is often referred to as torture, while the treatment meted out to Iraqi prisoners is termed as abuse. \n"It is not fair," Isaac said. "And there are double standards at play here. But all forms of abuse ought to be condemned and if the U.S. is going to present itself as a liberator, then it bears a special political and moral burden to avoid such abuses." \nHart said that the image of the Bush administration is hurt both at home and abroad. \n"Even more it further undermines the credibility of the Bush administration's policies in Iraq, which were already suffering damage from the increased resistance on the part of the Sunni Baathists and Shiite followers of (Muqtada al-) Sadr in the south," Hart said.\nIsaac said he believed the photographs will be exploited for political purposes and undoubtedly inflame certain constituencies, but added that this would not change the relationship of the U.S. with other countries. \n"I do not believe that any intelligent leader of any country will treat this as the basis for a relationship with the U.S.," Isaac said. "There are deeper and more long-standing interests at stake." \n-- Contact staff writer Hina Alam at halam@indiana.edu.