Both the Arab and Western worlds have been abuzz and enraged over alleged abuse of prisoners at the hands of American soldiers at Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison. The deplorable behavior — whatever its motivation — was first broadcast to the world April 28 by CBS, and then by United Arab Emirates-based Al-Arabiya and Qatar-based Al-Jazeera.
Reaction was sharply negative in the Arab world: “Shame on America,” said Mustafa Saad, who was reading a newspaper in a Cairo cafe, to The Associated Press. “How can they convince us now that it is the bastion of democracy, freedoms and human rights? Why do we blame our dictators then?”
On Wednesday, several ranking Republican leaders opposed the release of hundreds of photos not yet seen by the general public.
“These pictures, at this time, by the executive branch, should not be released into the public domain,” Sen. John Warner, R-Va., told CNN, arguing that the images could inspire the “enemy.”
But other representatives disagree.
“I think the only hope that we have, really, of redeeming ourselves here and winning back some of the support that this incident has cost us (is) if we act as an open society that will deal with problems openly, that will hold people accountable,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the top-ranking Dem on the Armed Services Committee.)
And Levin’s very close to being right-on. The openness of a government is more important in wartime than in any other. Indeed, photographs document the often grisly, gut-wrenching ravages of war in ways that words alone often cannot.
Thus, for their understanding, the American people should have reasonable access to the unreleased images, but the distribution of the images should be handled carefully: All pictures should be released, except those whose publication would interfere with due legal process (as of Thursday, seven soldiers face criminal charges in the case).
The most lurid of the pictures should be reserved for places where they cannot be found accidentally. A sixth-grader casually thumbing through a metro daily shouldn’t see prisoners being forced into demeaning sexual poses — something some of the photos depict — or charred but recognizable dismembered human bodies, but an adult reading online should be able to view them (after due warnings about graphic content).
The photos should be published in context: Photos as emotionally galvanizing as those of countrymen (or simply human beings in general) can very easily be used to further a partisan cause — often devaluing human life in the process — instead of that of human rights or fair journalism. Perhaps the best thing newspapers and other media can do to avoid acting as propagandists (deliberate or otherwise) is to define for themselves and their audiences why they’re printing or broadcasting some pictures are not others.
Ultimately, Americans need to be informed, and they’re best informed on their own terms.