WASHINGTON, 9 May 2004 — The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American military guards is “a stain on our country’s honor and reputation” but will not deter America’s mission to bring democracy to Iraq, President Bush pledged yesterday.
The president said the abuse and sexual humiliation of prisoners in Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison “was the wrongdoing of a few” and should not reflect on the thousands of US military personnel “who are serving and sacrificing in Iraq.”
“Our mission in Iraq will continue,” Bush said in his weekly radio address.
“We have no intention of leaving the nation at the mercy of thugs and murderers. We’re determined to help build a free and stable Iraq, a nation at peace with its neighbors and with the world,” said Bush.
Bush, who earlier in the week apologized for the abuse of the Iraqi prisoners, indicated that punishment arising from the prison incident will go beyond the seven members of the Army Reserve’s 372nd Military Police Company already charged by the military.
“We will learn all the facts and determine the full extent of these abuses,” said Bush. “Those involved will be identified. They will answer for their actions.” He said all prison operations in Iraq will be reviewed “to make certain that similar disgraceful incidents are never repeated.”
Bush reiterated the photographs of naked prisoners being humiliated by US soldiers “do not reflect our values.”
“They are a stain on our country’s honor and reputation,” said the president in his radio address.
Noting that more than 700 Americans have died in Iraq, Bush said, “The brave and honorable soldiers, sailors, airmen, Coast Guardsmen and Marines who are serving and sacrificing in Iraq — not the few who have let us down — show the true character of America.”
Despite “a difficult few weeks...our forces will stay on the offensive, finding and confronting the killers and terrorists who are trying to undermine the progress of democracy in Iraq,” said Bush.
US Mission Undercut by Abuse: Democrats
The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops has led to a loss of credibility that undermines an already troubled US military mission, retired Gen. Wesley Clark said in the Democratic weekly radio address yesterday.
“Apologies are not enough,” the former Democratic presidential candidate said. “These criminal acts of abuse must be investigated fully and those responsible held accountable under law.”
Clark, a former NATO commander who directed the 1999 bombing campaign in Kosovo, was an early critic of the war in Iraq. A senior member of the US team that helped broker the 1995 Dayton peace accords on Bosnia, Clark testified at the war crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who has faced calls for his resignation from some Democrats, offered an apology on Friday for the suffering that Iraqi prisoners faced at the hands of the American military.
