The 20th anniversary of the Abu Ghraib scandal passed rather quietly in recent weeks, most likely due to the world's focus on Gaza, and all the campus protests in the United States and around the world.
Twenty years ago, I had been living in Baghdad, along with the rest of our Christian Peacemaker Team, and we had spent the year carefully documenting dozens of testimonies from the survivors of U.S. human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere throughout the country.
The response was...underwhelming, at least at first. Rep. Dennis Kucinich responded, and I think we heard a bit of interest from the CBC, BBC, and maybe NPR. For the most part, though, we were pretty sure our report had gone directly into most folks' wastebaskets.
And then a soldier leaked the photos, and the phones began ringing nonstop. Apparently, our report hadn't been thrown out; it was just shelved until something came along to make people take notice.
We were all giving nonstop interviews for a week--some of mine were with CNN, BBC, and ABC, but the rest are now a blur.
And then, because of the enormous anger of the people at everything that had been done to them, at how horribly and humiliatingly abused the prisoners had been at the hands of the U.S. troops-- it was time to evacuate.
I thought I might get to go back in a few weeks once things settled down, but for me, that was the last I ever saw of Baghdad, and all of my friends that I'd made there.
Over the years, of course, with the hope of social media, I've been fortunate to hear from a handful of Iraqi friends who have survived, or who have even gotten out and moved elsewhere.
Barely a day goes by that I do not think of Baghdad; just like barely a day goes by when I do not think of Israel and Palestine, and all the dear people I have known in each place as well.
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