The picture shown here somehow captures the barbarity of it all. I think what makes it memorable is that the figure in the photo is in a position much like those [usually catholic] statues of the risen Christ showing his hands and side ... I wonder if that was the unconscious resonance for the editors?
It is a shame that at least the allied invasion of Iraq cannot say things were done with humanity. Rather it seems that some have not been able to resist the urge to imitate what they have found there. We are asked not to judge the [US] army based on the actions of a few. Fair enough at one level [though ...] but most of the world will and extremists who are into terrorism will see it a a further justification for what they plan and do.
As I'm reading "The Joy of being Wrong" and this book deals with a theological anthropology which takes a big cue from Rene Girard's mimesis theory [and hoorah! the book arrived from France yesterday], it is hard not to see some confirmation of this theory in what has happened in this case. Imitative violence. It this is in some measure right, then the interesting thing is that the imitative response may well be in relation to artefacts of torture that the soldiers have found themselves working among - an artefact-triggered mimetic response; an interesting and important thing to reflect on in cultural studies contexts.
No doubt there is much more to it, but I will be watching the trials carefully for evidence of how this sin took hold and whether the mimetic explanations carry weight.
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