The Devastating Legacy of Abu Ghraib: A Disturbing Violation of Human Rights

Abstract

Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse Human rights are universal rights inherent to all human beings. On the other hand, civil rights prove an essential component of democracy as they guarantee equality of social opportunities and protection under the law. Both human and civil rights are fundamental to all humans and should remain protected without any discrimination. Abu Ghraib's torture and prison abuse is an excellent example of a historical event that expresses total violation of human rights and war crimes for Iraqis by the American soldiers. The Iraqis detainees endured incidents of physical violence that one can best describe as cruel, blatantly sadistic, and inhuman. Abu Ghraib's torture and prison abuse came from the Iraq war, which began in 2003. The United States force toppled the Ba'athist government led by Saddam Hussein, leading to a fight, and insurgency emerged to oppose the occupying power (American militaries). After invading the Hussein government, Abu Ghraib prison was looted, and the American army took the responsibility of refurbishing it and turning it into their military prison. During this time, the U.S military used Abu Ghraib prison as a detaining facility and detained over 7000 Iraqi prisoners (Gordon, 2017). The 800th Military Police Brigade from [City, State], was the leading runner of the prison, and most prisoners lived in tents in the prison yard. However, abuses took place inside cell blocks 1a and 1b (Gordon, 2017). Detainees experienced rape and sodomy. Some U.S militaries raped and sodomized the detainees while, to some extent used objects like a truncheon, phosphorescent tube, and wire to worsen the experience. Detainees were forced to remain naked and pose in sexually explicit positions for photos and videotaping. U.S military poured phosphoric acids on detainees, tied ropes to their legs or penises and dragged them across the floor, urinated on them, jumped on their naked feet, forced them to masturbate while photographed and videotaped, placing dog chains around male detainees as female soldiers pose for a picture and accusing them of rape with evidence written on their legs "I am a rapist" (Weiner, 2017). Paying close attention to the abuses mentioned above/torture, one can argue that the U.S military violated the human rights of the Abu Ghraib prisoners without any warnings from their seniors. Donald Rumsfeld, then the Secretary of Defense, testified on May 7th, 2004, that the...