Film: Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

The film was shown in an upstairs room of the Arlington Unitarian Universalist Church, the same place the local Amnesty International Meetings are held,which is how I found out about the film screening in the first place. Ghosts of Abu Ghraib is directed by Rory Kennedy, and delves into not only what happened at the US run Iraqi prison, but how it happened, what were the orders sent down from above, who condoned the use torture, and how it affected not only the prisoners, but the soldiers as well. The film was aired on HBO, but is available to be shown at other venues, in living rooms, at schools, at community centers.

Torture is un-American. It is inhuman. To condone torture, any amount of torture and on anyone, betrays who we are as a people, as a species.

At the end of the film the moderator gave us a few moments to "return to the room" and I was glad she did so, for it took me that long to coax the tears back into their hiding places. We talked about actions, about writing letters to congress, to our representatives, and did these vigils and petitions do any good? Yes, they do, just like voting. It may seem like one vote is meaningless, but it starts with you: If you can make your one vote meaningful, maybe everyone will make their vote meaningful and we might get somewhere humane in the long run. But it's also good for our souls, to know that we are doing what we can. That we are trying. If we stand by and do nothing while people suffer, what does that make us?

But still, I write letters, and yet I can't help but feel I'm not doing enough. I put myself in that prison, being forced to do those things, being tortured, and I want to cry. It's so painful . I can;t understand how to live in a world that allows this to happen. It is an overwhelming feeling.

But then I see that I am not alone. That there are twenty people in the room with me who all feel this way. And maybe there is you, too?

There are solid things we can do to end torture, and especially our country's participation in it:
1. We can read more about it, and why it's not an effective method of getting intelligence (when tortured, prisoners will admit to anything they believe their interrogators want to hear).
2. We can write to our national representatives and demand that the Military Commissions Act (which authorizes torture and denies habeas corpus) be repealed.
3. We can demand that we abide by the UN Geneva Convention (which we signed), the UN Convention Against Torture (which we signed), our own Constitution (Amendment VIII which says no cruel or unusual punishment), and a standard of human decency. How would we like to be treated if we were captured by another country's army? Would we want to be stripped naked, psychologically bombarded with sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, isolation?
4. We can sign petitions put out by Amnesty International and other organizations: sign the pledge, urge your representatives to restore habeas corpus, ask your elected official to shut down Guantanamo, or write a letter to the editor of your local paper, talk about it over coffee, google TAASC (Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Group and see what comes up).

Some of these actions take 2 minutes, if that. Signing all the petitions and emailing all my reps took a little over 25 minutes. Reading all the articles definitely takes more time. But somewhere someone is being tortured for hours, for weeks, for months, for years even. Someone is screaming in pain. Someone is missing their family, someone is alone in a dark cell.

Sometimes I feel like I have to do it all or I'm not doing enough. I want to make a difference, but am I? I'm told that the letters really do help, especially in the long run. But even if they didn't, there's another difference that I'm making:

The difference is, in my soul, I know I did something.