America Must Lead With Morality

In Act V Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is unable in her mind to wash the blood of her wickedness from her hands. She seems on the brink, if not in the absolute depths of madness when she is overheard by a Doctor and a Lady in Waiting. “Out, damned spot. Out I say” she says wringing her hands to cleanse them of blood. She continues in perhaps a lucid moment, certainly the most frightening, to say “What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?” Such it seems is our government’s position as they wring their hands over the perverted atrocities of Abu Ghraib prison, and most likely other prisons in Iraq under American control.

Watching the congressional hearings this week I sat in stunned silence interrupted by my own outbursts of shock and shame as I watched Republicans and Democrats question Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the military hierarchy about what they knew, when they knew it and why they did not share the violent details with congress sooner. I know in my heart that all of the men and women taking part in the hearings were horrified by the actions portrayed in the photos and video from Iraq, but the notion that they had been left out of the loop somehow seemed to eclipse the issues of abhorrent violence. While the technical aspects of what, when and why are important as we move forward to prosecute all of those involved, it would seem to me to be secondary to the “how” of it.

How did this happen? How could we be so irresponsible as to send young men and women into harms way without proper training? A cover story in the New York Times (In Abuse, a Portrayal of Ill-Prepared, Overwhelmed G.I.’s, Sunday May 9) paints a grim picture of these young people who were in menial stateside jobs one-day and guarding prisoners in a war zone the next – without proper training. But training aside, if we are to claim the moral high ground in this world there are even more “hows” that need to be answered. How could some of our own commit such atrocities on the very people they were sent to save? How can they, in letters to parents and friends, pretend that they did not know or feel that this was illegal - that they should not question such extreme barbarism – even against those suspected of the same? How can they be smiling and parading in these pictures that make us unfortunate witnesses to the atrocities?

If we truly want to free the Iraqis and deliver unto them rule by the people for the people, if we want to be able to look the world in the eye and say that we have made Iraq a better place, if we are in fact the example of righteousness in the world then let us also admit our wrongs and punish those of our own who would stain the flag of the United States and the reputation of the men and women who serve in harms way so that others may taste the freedoms we are privileged to take for granted. Secretary Rumsfeld was correct in his testimony to the Senate this week when he said “people are lining up to get into this country.” Let’s make sure we continue to be the flag bearers for the honour and freedom they seek.

We must see the irony in Iran passing a law banning torture in the same week when Rush Limbaugh insists that he doesn’t see the violence in the photos from Iraq. It’s just “MPs blowing off steam” he says, as if the prisoners at Abu Ghraib were merely the subjects of some frat initiation hazing gone overboard. I appreciate free speech but I think Rush needs a new prescription.

Lest we find, like Lady Macbeth, that our blood stained hands will not come clean we must act in the manner befitting our values of moral and human decency. We must protect the high-ground our founding fathers fought for by admitting our guilt, prosecuting our own, providing broad systemic changes in the training of the military, and most of all – act in the best interests of the Iraqi people even if it is contrary to our own desires. If we are to live and lead in this world, we must be the example we want the world to see – this great power must be accountable to it as well.