Accidental Celebrities
England after being convicted
The photo of Lynndie England, a cigarette in her mouth, her finger outstretched at the genitals of a naked prisoner, is one of the most iconic photographs of the Iraq War. It may well be the most reprinted photograph in history. Lynndie herself is a problematic character: she was very young, in love, and not terribly self-aware, and the reality of who did what in that prison is still up for grabs. But the result is clear: a young woman from a small town in West Virginia was catapulted to infamy for photos her friends had taken. People focused all their hatred of the war on this one woman, almost as if in creating a hero out of Jessica Lynch, they needed to find the ultimate depraved antihero in Lynndie England. In a perverse twist, these “bad apples” of Abu Ghraib actually helped secure George W. Bush’s reelection as president. The day those photos became public was the worst day of Bush’s presidency, and everyone knew it. But showing publicly how shocked and outraged he was distanced him from the ugliness overseas. It gave him someone to blame—and it worked. Instead of looking at connections between Abu Ghraib, the war, and the White House, we just looked at those pictures. They deflected attention away from the policies that had produced them. But the fact of the matter is this: the United States was operating a concentration camp in the Sunni Triangle, and these people were following orders. I remain convinced the worst of it has still not been released to the public.
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