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The latest chapter in the legal history of torture is being written by American pilots who were beaten and abused by Iraqis during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. And it has taken a strange twist.
The Bush administration is fighting the former prisoners of war in court, trying to prevent them from collecting nearly $1 billion from Iraq that a federal judge awarded them as compensation for their torture at the hands of Saddam Hussein's regime.
The rationale: Today's Iraqis are good guys, and they need the money.
The case abounds with ironies. It pits the U.S. government squarely against its own war heroes and the Geneva Convention.
Many of the pilots were tortured in the same Iraqi prison, Abu Ghraib, where American soldiers abused Iraqis 15 months ago. Those Iraqi victims, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said, deserve compensation from the United States.
But the American victims of Iraqi torturers are not entitled to similar payments from Iraq, the U.S. government says.
"It seems so strange to have our own country fighting us on this," said retired Air Force Col. David W. Eberly, the senior officer among the former POWs.
I don't see this as being 'good' guys vs. 'bad' guys...it really boils down to $$$.
It looks like the federal bean counters probably figured that if our guys get awarded a judgement in the 'billions' - then the precedent is going to be set for the abused iraqi prisoners to be awarded something similar.
the government/corporate complex does NOT care about US soldiers - never has, never will.
Why anybody wants to fight in foreign adventures for those creeps is beyond me.
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Our soldiers which suffered physical brutality; beatings; which resulted in ruptured eardrums, smashed noses, a fractured skull; and starvation are denied redress.
While Iraqis held prisoner by the U.S., who were wrongly made to strip and lie in naked pyramids and other activites likened to fraternity hazing, are likely to get compensated:
"I am seeking a way to provide appropriate compensation to those detainees who suffered grievous and brutal abuse and cruelty at the hands of a few members of the U.S. military. It is the right thing to do," Rumsfeld told a Senate committee last year.
This has got to be great for morale and recruitment efforts!
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