Gary Younge’s thoughtful commentary in today’s Guardian takes Britain’s foreign policy to task, comparing the abuses at Camp Breadbasket — Britain’s Abu Ghraib — with the British Empire’s long history of colonial oppression, highlighting the refusal of the establishment to acknowledge that cultural chauvinism is alive and well:

Tony Blair described the photographs [of Camp Breadbasket] as “shocking and appalling”. He told the Commons that “the difference between democracy and tyranny is not that in a democracy bad things don’t happen, but that in a democracy when they do happen people are held and brought to account”.

The difference between “democracy” and “tyranny” may be lost on a man suspended from a forklift truck by a foreign occupier. Similarly, the difference between what is intended by “shock and awe” and what constitutes “shocking and appalling” may be lost on the soldier impaling him, not least when his commanding officer has told them to go “Ali Baba hunting” for those looting supplies and “work them hard” if he finds them.

Tue 01 Mar 2005 at 14:56   ·