Expose Prison Abuse in Iraq to Questions From All Sides

The disgusting, dehumanizing, criminal abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison cries out for establishment of an international tribunal, with the participation of Iraqis, as the only way to ensure that an investigation will be pushed as far and as high as it has to go. We must convince the people of Arab countries and others that justice will be done.

The Bush administration has always shied away from anything with “international” in it, believing that our troops are better than everybody else and should not be subjected to punishment by foreigners. But Americans who seem not to understand why “they” hate us so may gain a glimmer of a clue from the present instance.

And where was our wartime commander in chief? President Bush was told that something was going on at Abu Ghraib as long ago as January. Why didn’t he show some ordinary curiosity then and demand a full report?

Saul Halpert

Studio City

I feel that if the Iraqi prisoners were humiliated as a prelude to the gathering of useful intelligence that saved the lives of any Americans, then those acts were justified. I have viewed all of the images. I fail to see anything that can be considered horrific, unless you are an Islamic extremist who can’t handle a woman being in a place of authority, much less mocking you.

If you want to know about true torture and inhumane treatment, read “Bravo Two Zero” by Andy McNab, a sergeant in the British SAS during the 1991 Gulf War. His teeth were pulled out and he was forced to eat his own feces at the hands of the Iraqis during his time as a POW.

David Walton

Whittier

Regarding Abu Ghraib, a letter writer (May 6) asks, “What would cause these Americans [soldiers] to betray the principles and values we stand for?” Quite simply, the men and women who perpetrated these crimes have been caught up in the madness of a war that betrays those same principles and values. Their cruel behavior is the almost predictable result of having to kill and die in a conflict that we now know was based on deceit and ideological folly. Our leaders have woven a web of lies that has entangled and compromised our brave soldiers and all the rest of us.

Don Zipperman

Sherman Oaks

Why are we so shocked at the Iraqi prison photos? We have raised a generation in which violent TV, movies, comic books, video games, sports and music have indoctrinated many boys (and some girls) to believe that killing and maiming people is fun; that brutality is part of the game and that the guy who racks up the highest body count is the winner. We have looked the other way, and now we are forced to look at the results -- horrifying and absolutely predictable.

Gail Rock

Santa Monica

Robert L. Bastian Jr., in “Exporting America’s Shame” (Commentary, May 6), connects all of the dots. The abuses in the U.S. prisons in Iraq are symptomatic of the abuses in U.S. prisons (and no doubt in Guantanamo) -- abuses that are ignored, tolerated, covered up and even encouraged. What will be the real effect and outcome from the photographic evidence of these abuses? No more photos, please.

Deborah King-Straw

Los Angeles