The Guinea Pigs

By NiallO’Dowd

WHEN John McGuffin wrote his seminal book The Guinea Pigs in 1974 about torture of inmates in Northern Ireland during and after internment it was met with widespread shock and disbelief, especially in Britain where the reputation of the armed forces was at an all-time high.

McGuffin stated in clear, cold prose just exactly what some of the officers and gentlemen of the British Army were up to behind closed doors, interrogating prisoners who had not even been charged and were being held without bail.

The book, and an Amnesty International report on torture of inmates in Northern Ireland, had an appreciable effect on the subsequent events in the North as it became clear that, far from being impartial peacekeepers, elements of the British Army were busy torturing and maiming one side only, the Nationalists. Ironically McGuffin, who was also interned and abused, was a Protestant.

It was hard not to think back to those days last week when both American and British troops in Iraq were once more coming under the spotlight, accused of committing torture and mistreatment of enemy prisoners – again, none of them found guilty of anything.

It did, however, shock the senses to see who was trotted out to speak on behalf on the British side. It was none other than General Sir Michael Jackson, the highest ranking British Army officer. 

Surely not the same Michael Jackson who a lifetime ago was allegedly complicit in some of the worst activities of his beloved Parachute Regiment in Northern Ireland, including involvement in the killings of innocent civilians in Derry on Bloody Sunday in 1971? The very same, it appears. Having Michael Jackson vouch for your army is like having Donald Trump complain about over exposure. 

There are no limits on how far a man like Jackson will go to cover-up, obfuscate and otherwise try to denigrate such accusations. “Macho Jacko,” a nickname he loves, has called the alleged torture acts “shameful.” Coming from him that might be meant as a compliment.

The horrific photos on the American side were deeply disturbing. After all, wasn’t it precisely to stop such behavior by Saddam Hussein and his ilk that we went to war in the first place? The morality of the war is already being deeply questioned. This can only add fuel to the fires.

There is no question that Iraq is a deeply dangerous place. Suicide bombers prowl, local populations help set up ambushes and there is danger lurking around every street corner. 

However, allegations of torture and mistreatment of prisoners will sap morale and turn Americans against the war faster than any other single occurrence.

In Northern Ireland the British Army and Sir Michael never recovered from the proven allegations of torture against defenseless inmates. In Iraq the form of psychological torture, such as posed naked shots with grinning female soldiers, are designed to set the notoriously conservative Arab cultures aflame. There could hardly be a worse development for Americans.

To read much of the mainstream media one could get the impression that Iraq is somewhat like a video game war. In a culture so accustomed to violence, either the real kind or in movies, and the gee whiz technology of video games, “Shock and Awe” in Iraq hardly ever registers here as being about humans killing other humans, sometimes very brutally.

Last week in Fallujah, at least, the reality of killing hundreds of civilians in order to save them hit home, and the U.S. negotiated a middle path which if it works will allow both sides to claim a victory without having dead bodies to prove it. 

Such a middle ground could have worked very successfully in Northern Ireland at the beginning of the Troubles. For the British at least there must be a strong lesson there.