Pentagon documents released Monday disclosed that Iraqi prisoners had lodged dozens of abuse complaints against U.S. and Iraqi personnel who guarded them at a little-known palace in Baghdad converted to a U.S. prison. Among the allegations was that guards had sodomized a disabled man and killed his brother, whose dying body was tossed into a cell, atop his sister.
That was as far as I got before feeling an urgent need to deal with the laundry that's been piling up while I've been sick. I rub and rub and rub and the grass stains eventually disappear from the pant knees. I want to know that dirt comes out before I go back. I get a great deal more than normal satisfaction from watching the stain fade.
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Today at least, the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee did what they were supposed to do. The people I complain about met some minimal standard of decency. I plan to write every one of them a thank you note.
What concerns me is that it's ordinary Americans who aren't doing what they're supposed to do. No one expects every American to keep up with each twist and turn of politics, but I've always expected normal human reactions. I expect even politically clueless Americans to recoil at the image of an old woman stripped and ridden like an animal. Lately, that appears to be too much to ask.
Keeping up grassroots political pressure is extremely important, but as long as Americans can read about Congo-like horror without getting furious, it's going to be very hard to claim this country back.
Not to mention our souls!
