Arab Media Seething, Humiliated
If true, the stories of Iraqi prisoners being embarrassed by US military police are distasteful at the very least, and the MPs involved should be disciplined if found guilty.
What worries me about this, however, is the imminent, very predictable self-flagellating guilt orgy from the media, replete with silly exaggerations of the importance of this isolated, anomalous incident.
Arab media is, of course, already having a massive humiliation party: Arab Stations Show Iraqi Prisoner Images.
CAIRO, Egypt - Arab television stations led their newscasts Friday with photographs of Iraqi prisoners being humiliated by U.S. military police. One main channel called the pictures evidence of the “immoral practices” of American forces.
The images, including prisoners naked except for hoods covering their heads, documented alleged abuses that have led to charges against six American soldiers. They were first broadcast Wednesday night in the United States on CBS’ “60 Minutes II.”
The Dubai-based Al-Arabiya and the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera channels blurred the nudity of the prisoners.
The images were potentially inflammatory in an Arab world already angry at the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Arabs consider public nudity dishonorable.
But not a word of disapproval from the Arab World™ when the noble mujahideen resistance fighters use women and children as human shields, or tear apart the bodies of Westerners, or use mosques as weapons dumps and cover for gunmen, or murder captured prisoners.