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For anyone that's seen the grotesque pictures documenting the horrors at Abu Ghraib or who's read stories of the torture that occured there, it's difficult to muster sympathy for the human beings who could engage in such deplorable acts. They seem sociopathic and depraved: hideous nightmare figures devoid of all humanity.
Yet, when you really consider that appraisal, it becomes increasingly difficult to merely right them off. What, after all, are the chances of a unit of psychologically disturbed and spiritually irredeemable individuals spontaneously coalescing? What is the likelihood that these were merely--as the spin went at the time--a "bunch of bad apples"? The reality, I'm afraid, is far more terrifying. Though there may be a few pure saints among us, the truth is that--given the right circumstances--we are all capable of behaving as Charles Graner and his cohorts did. This does not, by any means, excuse or condone such behavior, but it should give us pause.
Victor Hugo once wrote that “The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.” Though Charles Graner is surely guilty of despicable acts, the greatest responsiblity for his sins rests with those who shut out the lights and created the darkness in which they could occur: the people who orchestrated a set of circumstances that encouraged and, at times required, the dehumanization of both the prisoners at Abu Ghraib and their guards.
That being said, I refuse to see Charles Graner as a victim. To paint him is such a light is an afront to the true victims of Abu Ghraib: the Iraqi men brutalized for little reason other than sadistic sport. We are all responsible for our own actions. We are not, however, solely responsible for them. In this case, there is plenty of blame to go around and it is unfortunate that--in an offical sense--it has failed to do so. Holding the policy makers, commanders, and other authority figures accountable for the events at Abu Ghraib is not only required from the standpoint of basic justice, it is also a vital step towards achieving the goal that all penal systems should have: stopping the cycle of criminality and making true the seemingly hollow vow of the 20th century, "Never Again."
