Blowback

Many Americans are worried about "blowback" from the publication of torture photos from Abu Ghraib. Too late - it's already happened. This weeks Time has 10 Questions For Jumpei Yasuda (one of the Japanese journalists taken hostage in Iraq last month), and it includes this snippet:

The man who pointed his gun at me told me he was walking on the sidewalk and was arrested by the G.I.s when he wouldn't answer their questions. He said he was imprisoned for almost a month and regularly beaten up. One day, he said, he was taken to a private room and sexually assaulted.

(Emphesis added)

Abu Ghraib's torturers have been turning Iraqis against the occupation long before the photos were published. Contrary to the myopic beliefs of Americans, for whom nothing is real until reported in the US media, people do know when they are being tortured...