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Article: The art of suffering.(The Abu Ghraib Effect)(Book review)
- Article from:
- Art in America
- Article date:
- June 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Abu Ghraib Effect, by Stephen F. Eisenman, London, Reaktion Books, Ltd., distributed by University of Chicago Press, 2007; 144 pages, $19.95 paper.
Among the most indelible and disturbing images from the Iraq War are the photographs taken over the course of several months in fall 2003 by U.S. soldiers stationed at Tier 1 of Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad. They show Iraqi detainees being taunted, humiliated and in some cases tortured by U.S. prison guards. As the Iraq war continues to drag on, these abject scenes appear today to be emblematic of a skewed military enterprise that was misguided to begin with and has gone terribly awry since the war's opening-day ...