Iltreatment of the Iraqis by the British soldiers

Yesterday, a british tabloid published pictures of British soldiers beating up Iraqi youth and this has stirred up trouble once again, in the troubled region. There were troubles earlier with American soldiers, in Abu Gharib prison and Guantanamo bay prison. That led to an increase in the violence in Iraq and a general hatred for the West, across the Muslim world.

While, torture is not unusual in the prison camps, involving terrorists, torture coming from an European army is not expected. The West is expected to act much more mature, particulary after their experience in the World Wars, which taught the world, how smallest of issues can snowball into a major tragedy. Hatred, Vengence, Revenge and Racialism were issues small enough, at a local level, but these led to the death of millions of people, in horrific ways. The soldiers at the camp, did not help their country in anyway to get new information or get ahead with the war against terror, by their sadistic treatment. Such actions should be sternly dealt with and disciplinary actions must be taken against the guilty.

All said, we can take too much from this issue, other than hoping that there are very less sadists who would be photographing such incidents. In many cases, it is very hard for the armed forces to go soft on the terrorists. The terrorists, who do not hesitate to give their lives by tying a live bomb, are not like you and me and thus should not expect the treatment given to people in civilized societies. Thus, it becomes unavoidable for the army to extract information from such horrible persons, by torture and this should not be discouraged, too much. After all the saftety and survivability of our societies rely upon the state taking up harsh actions against hardened criminals. Moreover, many of the soldiers are weak, tired and face psychological pressures due to constant attacks and threats. Many of them are just freshly baked out of schools and they do know to react to such prisoners. Thus, it is the duty of the government to take care of them and make sure there is no pscychological pressures involved, when sending soldiers to such prominent places.

However, sadistic treatment must be condemned and any action that run counter to the program objectives, must be dealt with sternly.