Sunday, 02 May 2004

An open letter: On behalf of the American people, I apologize to the people of Iraq — to the individuals, their families, and their loved ones — who have been humiliated and abused by U.S. soldiers, agents, and contractors under American employ. I promise to see that these barbaric incidents are investigated, prosecuted, and that the responsible parties are punished; that the Iraqi victims of these acts are compensated for the abuse and humiliation they endured; that America's armed forces are held to the highest standards of conduct in their treatment of prisoners and civilians; and that the United States in its words and actions respects the inalienable rights of the Iraqi people.

I believe that hundreds of thousands of men and women have served honorably and decently in our effort to rebuild Iraq, and that these despicable actions are not reflective of the U.S. armed forces as a whole. Nonetheless, these actions are intolerable. Our exercise of authority in Iraq is a temporary measure, a necessary step in restoring sovereignty to the Iraqi people; we are custodians of that sovereignty only because we took from Saddam Hussein that which he had unlawfully stolen. Our duty is clear, and our intent is clear: We will restore the sovereign rights of the people of Iraq, and look forward to the day when the Iraqi people exercise the powers we've fought for them to obtain.

These photographs document crimes against the Iraqi people, and I applaud the media outlets that have exposed them to the light. Some would say the publication of these photos is harmful to our efforts: That it damages America's reputation, and fans the flames of Iraqi extremists who would fight our peacekeeping efforts. I would say that the damage had already been done — not by the people who published these pictures, but by the people who made them. The truth could not be hidden from the victims of these acts. Suppressing the evidence would only avoid our duty to see things made right.

We are fighting a terrorist movement that considers mass murder without moral pause. We are fighting to protect the rights that we hold to be universal: Rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that we believe are the birthright of all humanity. But we cannot secure these rights for ourselves while denying them to the Iraqi people, and we cannot build a democratic Iraq with the tools of a police state. I condemn and regret these acts of sadistic cruelty, and support all efforts to ensure justice is served.

- Posted by Scott Forbes at 6:57 am. comments.