Abu Ghraib revisited

What should the government do about the hidden Abu Ghraib photos and videos?

What is in them? The Congressmen who were allowed to see them last year emerged ashen-faced and talked of unspeakable horrors. Seymour Hersh has reported that they contain images of young boys being sodomized.

General Meyers says they are so horrible that releasing them would cause deaths (see also Salon's War Room post).

I believe it. Bad things happened there, very bad things. We never got to the bottom of it, and the world remembers.

The Bush administration and the military have never owned up to the failure and inhumanity that the tragedy of Abu Ghraib represents. A few grunts have been punished, but generals in the chain of command were promoted. Donald Rumsfeld was praised. The architect of the legal case for torture was made Attorney General. And armchair generals and pundits minimized, excused, and even justified what when on there. In a very real way, America never owned up to what we were responsible for at Abu Ghraib.

Would America be shocked to see these new photos?

Deep inside, I am worried that we wouldn't be. The right wing and their media machine have so successfully rationalized the abuses of Abu Ghraib to promote their Cult of Bush. I'm afraid even video of soldiers sodomizing teenaged boys wouldn't make a mark. In their eyes, America can do no wrong.

And another piece of our national soul would be chipped away, cheapened by these men and women who crave power above all else, above all morality.