They Wore Hoods

There are two sets of photos from Iraq in which men are wearing hoods on their heads that are troubling. The famous photos of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib is one of them. They were paraded around in front of women naked except for the hood. To be on display before women in that way is very shameful to a Muslim. But, that's of course not all. They were forced to simulate or actually perform sexual acts on other men in front of women. I think anyone would find that degrading, even exhibitionists, because this was forced. They had no choice. Now, who's in the wrong here? It's pretty easy to say that the American soldiers were. There's no question that they did it, because they're in the pictures. Maybe it's because I work for a government agency, but I know that you never get in a photo doing anything questionable. Were these GIs so naive that they didn't know that photos can come back to haunt you? The pictures themselves are troubling enough, but what were the soldiers thinking? That they were on a trip to Disney Iraq? Just imagine what other pictures are being taken over there. Hey, mom, this is me kicking in the front door of a suspected terrorist's house. This is me pointing my rifle at a little kid's head. This is me kicking the shit out of the man of the house.

The other sets of photos involve hoods too. It's the pictures of the men that beheaded Nick Berg. There were 5 of them with their faces covered by keffiyeh. I can understand why 4 of them were hiding, but why was the guy that did the cutting hiding? The title of the video said that it was al-Zarqawi who did the killing. If it really was al-Zarqawi, like the CIA believes, then why hide your face? You already said it was you. If it wasn't him, then at least it makes sense to hide your face. That's really puzzling to me. What's up with all the anonymity? If they had any courage they would have done it on camera without hoods. That way they would be saying, this is who we are, and we dare you to try to catch us. The way they did it just makes them look like publicity seeking cowards. If they're going to take on the Evil Empire that they believe we are, they should at least be up front enough to tell us who they are. I've got to say that Al Qaida have turned chicken in the past few months. The guys that flew into the WTC and the Pentagon were kamikazis. They were willing to die for what they wanted to accomplish. The Al Qaida fighters in Afghanistan, Chechnia, and Kashmir were (are) putting their lives on the line for their beliefs. But, this latest twist is just like regular criminals. They want to be alive after the smoke settles. Madrid was not a suicide operation. Neither was Nick Berg's murder. They hid behind hoods.

So, hoods were all over Iraq lately. Neither case was honorable.
- posted by Marcos @ 8:22 PM