Strong articles are good for the constitution.

[novapsyche]

The Dogs of War

Dog handlers cornered prisoners with snarling dogs to scare them into urinating on themselves. Naked prisoners and prisoners with bags over their heads were forced within inches of barking dogs. US soldiers threatened to set the dogs loose on detainees. One detainee suffered 12 stitches from dog bites. One of the most galling photos from Abu Ghraib showed a smiling US soldier holding a prisoner by a leash.

If you leash people as dogs, it is easy to unleash dogs on them. This week the former commander of the military police at Abu Ghraib, Janis Karpinski, told the BBC that Major General Geoffrey Miller, then the commander at Guantanamo Bay, told her last fall: "They are like dogs, and if you allow them to believe at any point that they're more than a dog, then you've lost control of them."

Miller, who has since replaced Karpinski, denies saying that. Clearly the government did not care that many Muslims view dogs as unclean or how man's best friend is also equated with hate.

The Nazis put up signs saying "No Jews or dogs allowed." In the Deep South of the 1950s there were signs that said, "No niggers, no Jews, no dogs."

Comments

[voiceandsalt.livejournal.com]

miller should be put on trial at the icc along with rumsfeld and bush.

actually, i think they used dogs at abu ghraib specifically BECAUSE the prisoners were likely to consider them unclean animals. the idea was to tweak that cultural disgust as a way of breaking them down so they would talk when they were interrogated.