Teddy: We've lost the moral authority

In less than 48 hours, the documentary film Ghosts of Abu Ghraib premieres on HBO. The film is directed by Rory Kennedy, the youngest child of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy. By most accounts that I've read ahead of time, the film packs a pretty powerful punch, and how could it not, considering the subject matter?

In a column today on Arianna Huffington's Website, Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy has a point when he says that "It may well be the steepest and deepest fall from grace in our history."

"Yet at every opportunity, the Administration has tried to minimize the problem and avoid responsibility for it," he wrote.

Like Teddy or hate him, how can a logical person who has even passively followed the Abu Ghraib fiasco disagree, regardless of political persuasion? The most frightening part of the abuse and torture tragedy is that there are Americans who feel that nothing wrong occurred at the prison. Count Rush Limbaugh among them, who infamously said that all he saw in the photographs were "soldiers having a good time." Sick, demented, sad and preposterous.

Quick aside about Ted Kennedy, by the way. Can Republicans possibly be any more trite than bringing up Chappaquiddick every five minutes? Probably my favorite Republican bumper sticker of all time reads, Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my guns. My reply to that bumper sticker would be this: George Bush's Iraq War has killed more Americans than 3,000 of Ted Kennedy's cars. No question Kennedy got off easy and that Mary Jo Kopechne's death was tragic, but to hear some people tell it, he killed her in cold blood and walked away scott free. Politics aside, does anyone really believe that? Teddy's got a lot of warts, most self-inflicted, and that scandal tops the list, but he's done a lot of good for our country, too. Oh yea, and can we all agree that he and his members of his have made some pretty tragic sacrifices because they wanted to serve their country? Okay, Kennedy rant over.

Kennedy's right - the images are still disturbing to look at. I remember the shock, horror and disbelief I felt when I first saw the images.

In my lifetime, since I've been old enough to remember and follow politics, I can't think of any single event (Aside from the current War in Iraq itself) that has damaged our credibility and moral standing with the rest of the world more than Abu Ghraib.

I'll rephrase - Abu Ghraib is my generation's My Lai. Okay, that might be overstating the case a bit - over 100 innocent Vietnamese were killed in that tragedy. I'm not suggesting that Abu Ghraib is equal, I'm merely suggesting that its impact is equal.

We are America - we are supposed to stand for Democracy, freedom, peace and human rights. This war has put all four of those into doubt, and Abu Ghraib only exacerbated our free fall as the moral authority in the free world.

Adding to many Americans' frustration is the lack of any sort of in-depth, independent investigation of the scandal. In the days following Abu Ghraib going public, the Bush Administration seemed more intent at castigating those who exposed the scandal than getting to the bottom of what happened. And I won't even recap the absurdity of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's comments.

Kennedy writes:

What we got instead were nine incomplete and self-serving internal investigations by the Pentagon. None of the investigators were given the authority to challenge the conduct of the civilian command. The report of the Schlesinger Panel found that abuses were "widespread" and that there was "both institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels." But Secretary Rumsfeld refused to let the panel to consider personal accountability for the abuses.

The Republican rubber-stamp Congress was complicit in the Administration's efforts to evade responsibility.

I know that the DemocratIC Congress has better things to do right now, like determining whether to fund President Bush's troop escalation, but once time permits, I certainly hope Congress initiates a bona fide investigation into Abu Ghraib, one with teeth and subpoena power.

Don't forget to check out Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, which premieres this Thursday night on HBO at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT.