Media violence, hegemonic masculinity, and market ideology together produced Abu Ghraib

Evidence

As I do, Giroux rejects the argument that what went on at Abu Ghraib was the work of a few bad apples, although he still considers that special conditions prevailing in Iraq pushed soldiers to the brink and he believes that the torture is simply culturally specific torture. Recognizing that the photos reveal something about collective will, however, Giroux explores where soldiers learned the identities they enacted at Abu Ghraib. The ‘pedagogical conditions’ that produced Abu Ghraib have something to do with ‘discourses of privatization, particularly the contracting of military labor, the intersection of militarism and the crisis of masculinity, the war on terrorism, and the racism that makes it so despicable.’ Specifically, the media’s celebration of violence, hegemonic masculinity with its insistence on ‘masculine hardness’ against feminine softness, and market fundamentalism all combined in a ‘furious jingoistic patriotism’ that is evident in these acts of torture. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 151 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

There has been remarkable consensus around the answer to this question in the media and in the official reports. As the Fay Inquiry summed up, the soldiers who abused detainees were ‘a small group of morally corrupt and unsupervised soldiers and civilians.’ Circumstances, however, pushed many of them to the brink: ‘The occupiers were overwhelmed.’ Inadequately trained, demoralized, fearful, and pressured ‘to obtain information that could help save American lives,’ they fell into torture and the sexual humiliation of prisoners. Perhaps the only disagreement over this version of events has been over whether or not morally weak, low-ranking soldiers were in fact encouraged by their leaders to ‘mistreat’ prisoners. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 153 (#complicates, via linked claim)

The photographs did not lie’ is the line that introduces a book containing the official reports of what has come to be known as the ‘shocking prisoner abuse in Iraq.’ If the images of American men and women gleefully posing beside a pyramid of naked Iraqi men or giving the thumbs up beside hooded and naked prisoners did not lie, what truth did they tell? There has been remarkable consensus around the answer to this question in the media and in the official reports. As the Fay Inquiry summed up, the soldiers who abused detainees were ‘a small group of morally corrupt and unsupervised soldiers and civilians.’ Circumstances, however, pushed many of them to the brink: ‘The occupiers were overwhelmed.’ Inadequately trained, demoralized, fearful, and pressured ‘to obtain information that could help save American lives,’ they fell into torture and the sexual humiliation of prisoners. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 153 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Abu Ghraib’s pornographic image-making directly inspired the torture-porn film genre — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 754; Abu Ghraib required both cultural monsters and institutional dehumanization — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 751; Cultural conditions rather than rogue individuals produced Abu Ghraib torture — Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims…, 151 (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Cultural conditions rather than rogue individuals produced Abu Ghraib torture #corroborates (0.92) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 151
• Official reports attributed Abu Ghraib abuse to a few weak soldiers under stress #complicates (0.80) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 153
• Official accounts framed Abu Ghraib abuse as corrupt individuals, not policy #complicates (0.78) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 153
• Reading Abu Ghraib photos as homophobia obscures the racialized torture of the prisoners #complicates (0.72) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 150