In remembrance of the April 28, 2004, Abu Ghraib prison scandal, Chico State students staged mock characterizations, photo images and video clips of abused prisoners in the Free Speech Area Wednesday.
The timely event, on the heels of military trials of Lynndie England and the Abu Ghraib abuses, sparked debate on broader related issues.
"It's bringing up powerful issues," said Eric Johnson, who teaches a class on globalization and democracy at Chico State.
A recent report from the Human Rights Watch said the abuses at Abu Ghraib Prison (also called Baghdad Central Detention Center or Baghdad Central Correction Facility) are the tip of the iceberg in investigating policies that led to these abuses.
According to the report: ”The crimes at Abu Ghraib are part of a larger pattern of abuses against Muslim detainees around the world." This is including those in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
"It's now clear that abuse of detainees has happened to a lot of third-country dungeons where the United States has sent prisoners," said the special council for Human Rights Watch.
Johnson said the Abu Ghraib incident might be "a microcosm of the Iraq War as a whole."
"There's a lot of questions about the policies that went into the war," he said.
A heated argument between Chico State students Frank Brockerman and Pat Buckley about the broader issues and causes of war drew a small crowd.
Brockerman said the Abu Ghraib incident reflects a social problem that extends to bigger problems and their causes. He said he criticizes the Bush administration for being untruthful.
"We claim to be the good example; then we do these things," he said about the alleged violations of the Geneva Conventions protocol, which protect people who are involved in war but can no longer fight.
Buckley disagrees.
"We're getting hung up on this one issue," Buckley said. "Why not show U.S. soldiers being tortured in other places like Ireland?"
Buckley said while he doesn't condone the actions at Abu Ghraib, he saw the event as a forum to knock the Bush administration. He said the event organizers were too quick to depict Abu Ghraib as a reflection of U.S. policy and that there is inhumanity everywhere.
"They don't say anything about the 3,000 U.S. soldiers tortured at the ends of our enemies," he said.
He said that all too often the media and people who go in front of a microphone use buzz words to elicit a desired response and that we miss the bigger picture when we use the word "torture." Citing the difference between mental and physical abuse, Buckely said the Abu Ghraib abuses are not torture in the literal sense.
"There's a difference in making people uncomfortable and legitimately torturing," he said. “People are getting their heads cut off. There's big disparity there."
Robert Bowman, Chico State professor of music, said he criticizes the Bush Administration for what he sees as undemocratic policies that lead to globalization and the media that caters to it.
"The media is controlled by policies that the government is pursuing," he said.
John Neal, who is finishing his master's in recreation administration, said the event causes people to look down on law enforcement and military.
The veteran of the U.S. Air Force said he believes the Abu Ghraib story is an isolated incident and the accused guards are "bad apples spoiling the whole bunch" of military personnel and will be found guilty.
"I've seen that the military has a lot of good people. They don't teach us those things. We shouldn't judge the actions of the few," he said.
Neal said the accused prison guards most likely lacked infrastructure without direct channels of communication with superiors.
Logan Keyser, Chico State psychology and philosophy student, said the event is good for people to see.
"It's like the frat boy trouble. They continue to do wrong things but they never fall under ill repute," he said. "Our governing body keeps doing things they're not supposed to do and no one seems to care."
"This is all America," Keyser said. "We're the best and the worst country. It's a strange dichotomy."
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