Abu Ghraib The All-round Confusion and Confusion of Blame Essay

The world was shaken in 2004 when media outlets released incriminating photos of American soldiers torturing Iraqi detainees in the Abu Ghraib Prison, Iraq. Depicted in the photographs was an array of physical and sexual violence toward the detainees, torture, which had occurred a year earlier. The most notable photographs were of an Iraqi man standing on a box, connected to menacing wires, a triangular black cloth covering his head, the other, a pile of naked Iraqis, heads covered in similar fashion, stacked in a pyramid like formation as two soldiers posed behind smiling and giving a thumbs up. This is a sociological issue because as one of many definitions states "sociology is the study of our behavior as social beings, covering everything from the analysis of short contacts between anonymous individuals on the street to the study of global social processes" (American Sociological Association 2016). The behavior of those American soldiers shamed the U.S. on a global scale. The treatment of those detainees falls under Common Article Three of the Geneva Conventions in which it clearly "bars torture, cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment, as well as outrages against the human dignity of prisoners of war," (Beehner 2006). Once these pictures came to the public's attention, the U.S. faced harsh criticism from human rights groups to legal scholars, as well as critics of the Bush administration. However, Abu Ghraib was not the first or only instance of a breech in the Geneva Conventions torture against detainees had been suspected at Guantanamo Bay and the existence of CIA-run prisons overseas gave further evidence of the U.S. not following the Article Three.
The Geneva Conventions "provide an agreed-upon framework of legal protections to safeguard soldiers, civilians, and prisoners during wartime" (Beehner 2006). If a country violates the Geneva Conventions it can be charged for war crimes. The U.S. in light of the Abu Ghraib scandal argues that it did not violate Article Three because the detainees to be interrogated were members of higher rank in al-Qaeda and other "unlawful enemy combatants" (Beehner 2006). There was confusion as to if the article applied for these al-Qaeda members and other because of the issue of reciprocity. This confusion is due in part for the Geneva Conventions rely on states to uphold the law because they expect other states to do the same. But in this case, the al-Qaeda and other members are of a non-state orientation in which they are not expected or held to reciprocate or provide the Geneva Conventions' protections to U.S. detainees.
With such a breech and worldly shame the question arises where does the blame lie? Does it fall on the soldiers whose hands committed the crimes? Or does it lie with their superiors? How far does that trail lead, to the Pentagon, White House? In order to find out it is necessary to do research into the many truths and fibs surrounding the Abu Ghraib scandal.