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Soldiers React to the Prison Abuse
"I’m not saying I approve of it, but I understand the conditions that led up to them doing it."
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By Belia Mayeno
Young reservists are at the center of the prison abuse scandal. Youth Radio wanted to hear what young people in the military reserves had to say about the stories coming out of Abu Ghraib, and about how today’s soldiers are using photography to document their experiences in this war. Belia Mayeno interviewed two Marine reservists who invaded Iraq and then got sent home, to watch the war from their college dorms.
A year ago, Former Marine reservist Ed Reyes returned from Iraq, after taking part in the US invasion. Now he’s back at University of California at Riverside, a 26 year old art student. Here’s what he says about the stories of prison abuse coming out of Iraq.
ED (on tape)
It’s like Chris Rock said, I wouldn’t do it, but I understand. I’m not saying I approve of it, but I understand the conditions that led up to them doing it.
BELIA
Ed's buddy Luis Guerrero, a shy 21 year old, resumed his freshman year at Riverside when he returned from Iraq a year ago.
LUIS (on tape)
Oh yeah, I remember that, but you know what happened…
BELIA
Luis was a field radio operator for a logistics unit in Iraq. He says sometimes they had to round up Iraqis and detain them. And, when you see someone as your enemy, and you feel like they're going to kill you, you start to look at them with hate. At some point, Luis says, you're going to lose your judgment, even if it's just for a minute or two. It’s up to you to know how to manage it, he says. He tells this story.
LUIS (on tape)
I think we picked up prisoners, and put barbed wire around them. I recall one of the corporals offering me an opportunity to go in there and abuse them. He said, “Hey, Guerrero, look, there’s one of those Iraqi guys. Wanna go in there and kick em?” I thought about it for a split second, but then I guess my judgment came into play, and I said, that’s not the right thing to do. Just go back to my five ton, and if I’m called upon to do something, gotta do my job.
BELIA
When you ask him about what happened at Abu Graib, Luis says the soldiers responsible should be treated harshly, possibly including higher ups. But like his buddy Ed, Luis says the abuses don't really surprise him.
LUIS (on tape)
People see it on TV, they’re not living it, so they find it surprising, “Oh, this is obscene.” But then, you tell me one thing that happens during war that is not obscene.
BELIA
And as we’ve seen over the past weeks, the graphic images of war are not only televised, they’re digitized. After Ed Reyes was called to Iraq, one of the first things he did was stock up on camera supplies.
ED (on tape)
We spent a lot of time patrolling, driving around, so I’d whip out the camera, real quick, take a picture. I mean, we wouldn’t be taking out the camera when we were doing anything mission critical or important. But I mean, half the time we spent on the road, we got to see a lot of Iraq. But I just took the pictures as a record of my travels, I guess. Because me going to Iraq, going to war and back, was the only real adventure I’ll ever have.
BELIA
These reservists say, when they come home from Iraq, it’s normal for them to scan their pictures onto a computer, email them around, or burn them onto a CD. It’s a digital yearbook of a military unit’s shared experience in Iraq. Ed put HIS photos on the web.
ED
Here’s—okay, we’re gonna go in, and it says—and here’s a link to it…
BELIA
Some of the pictures are just pretty shots of the desert, and the ruins in Babylon. But many of them are graphic shots of charred dead bodies, or truncated torsos lying in the sand. The photos show us what he saw, and the captions he added tell us how he saw it. Ed and his fellow Marines nicknamed one burnt corpse “Mr. Crispy.”
ED (on tape)
When I first saw dead bodies, I was like, I’ve never seen dead bodies like that before, so out of curiosity, I whipped out the camera and stuff. I was in the car, we were still driving the whole time, I didn’t get out and say, oh, Kodak moment. Just gave it to my driver, my guy on top, the gunner, take pictures, basically what it was, you find your photo opps when you can…
BELIA
Ed points to another shot, one of Americans in camouflage giving candy to Iraqi children, and his caption reads “Hey kids, here’s some candy. Now make sure you don’t sneak up on me tonight or I’ll have to shoot you.”
ED (on tape)
So here’s a picture of blown up tanks, big old statue of AK 47s on an Iraqi flag, that’s pretty good…
BELIA
Ed’s grisly photos and captions are disturbing. And what may have started as a personal travelogue is now part of a growing stream of images soldiers are bringing home, changing the way the world sees this war.
Related Stories:
Snapshots from Andrews Air Force Base
A Soldier's Reflection
The Story of a Wounded Soldier
Return to Oakland
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