Joe Stromberg points out that the destruction of Abu Ghraib may have ulterior motives: “With the kinder, gentler prison in place, Abu Gulag will be destroyed – ‘with the approval of the Iraqi government’ – a happy ending which puts some of us in mind of the erasure of the ashes of Mt. Carmel. Fewer reminders that way, I guess, and maybe less evidence.”
I say Joe is on to something here. Just as people visit former Nazi concentration camps to be reminded by the physical remains of the camps of the historicity of what happened there, Abu Ghraib should remain as a physical reminder of the atrocities committed there by the regime of Saddam Hussein as well as by the U.S. occupation.
I believe Solzhenitsyn said something like, “The fight of liberty against tyranny is the fight of remembering against forgetting.”
Friends of liberty and of remembering: Unite to Save Abu Ghraib!
[I have not been able to verify that Solzhenitsyn actually said that, BTW. The first person who provides me with a citation for this will receive $5 by Paypal upon my verification of the cite. I believe this is called blegging.]
5:41 pm on May 27, 2004
