The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, where discipline and military standards were disregarded by US military soldiers, who beat, humiliated, and tortured prisoners. The paper points out that the US did not start to reevaluate the standards and conditions of their prisons until more cases of prisoner mistreatment throughout prisons in Iraq started to surface. The American Army started to set new standards to enforce throughout its units since it could no longer place the blame on "a few bad apples." The paper argues that, while this might seem like a change for the better, the United States Army was already in the possession of the resources needed to prevent such an occurrence. The paper concludes that the events that took place at Abu Ghraib and other prisons could have been avoided with the presence of proper leadership, supervision, and enforcement of basic military standards.

From the Paper:

"During times of war, strong leadership and positive role models are essential in keeping order and focus in a group of people. Good leaders take charge, allot tasks, and enable others to cooperate to complete a project. In order to sustain their status and continuation of the group, soldiers take part in collective observational learning. This prevents corruption through negative reinforcement and strengthens camaraderie through mutual positive reinforcement. In my beast squad, my platoon sergeant was always present, setting examples for New Cadets to follow. My squad leader imitated his actions, always treating us fairly, and disciplined us when we needed it. In the case of Abu Ghraib, the presence of a positive role model was needed to prevent the distortion of military standards. The presence of a good leader would have allowed the soldiers in the prison unit to instill within themselves competence, loyalty, and honor to the tasks they were assigned. Furthermore, if Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick II was a good leader, he would have instated the military standards in accordance with the Geneva Convention that he and his staff were trained in, and he would have felt the moral obligation to stop the mistreatment of prisoners. The soldiers tasked with guarding the prisoners would not have been free to abuse detainees had Staff Sergeant Frederick II followed his training and enforced orders."

Sample of Sources Used:

• McGeary, J. (2007). The scandal's growing stain. Time Magazine. Retrieved November 15, 2007, from http://www.time.com/time/printout/ 0,8816,994176,00.html
• Weiten, Wayne. (2007). Psychology: Themes and Variations, 7th ed.

More papers on The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal:

• Term Paper # 57338 : "George W. Bush and the Media"
• Research Paper # 113637 : "The Growing Tide of Anti-Americanism"
• Analytical Essay # 62622 : "Lieutenant William Calley"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: