Den verkliga faran med tortyrskandalen

Melanie Phillips, en salt brittisk journalist och författare, skrev igår en kolumn i Daily Mail om vad som är den verkliga faran med tortyrskandalen i Irak. Hon skriver:

For those of us of who supported the war in Iraq, these are grim and agonising times. The scandal over the ill-treatment of Iraqi detainees by American and British troops is gathering deadly momentum.
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The real danger from this scandal is not the anger it may unleash among Iraqis. However appalling, these acts pale beside the untold horrors inflicted on them by Saddam. And they know that such behaviour is not permitted under the west’s moral codes, and that as a result they are better off now than under Saddam.

No, the gravest peril lies in the possible collapse of nerve in the west itself. The scandal has handed a potent weapon to those gunning for both President Bush and Tony Blair and who have every interest in milking the crisis, however destructive this might prove in Iraq itself.

This faction, dominant among the British and European establishment and now making headway in the US, already has blood on its hands for preaching defeatism and appeasement at every turn, thus encouraging the insurgents in Iraq who know how to turn the screw and divide the coalition still further.
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The US has made huge mistakes in Iraq. Deep divisions between the State and Defence departments have produced incompetence on the ground. Some perspective is needed: much of the country is peaceful, and the people themselves are optimistic. But to avert the still real prospect of disaster, the US needs to bring in many more troops on the one hand and accelerate a general election ”” thus giving Iraq back to the Iraqis ”” on the other.
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We are in a fight to the death against a war of terror being waged against us. To win it, we have to uphold our moral standards ”” and yet prevent them from being used to defeat us. That means facing up squarely to abuses when they occur, rooting out the causes up to the highest levels ”” and then not losing our nerve, but renewing the fight.

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