Standard Operating Procedure

                Standard Operating Procedure was a riveting documentary that we viewed in class exposing what goes on inside some of the military prisons in Iraq. It was very eye-opening and in a way, hard to watch at times. It showed some of the ways our American soldiers mistreated and tortured Iraqi prisoners and provided gruesome photos of their actions. It was crazy to think about all the things that go on during war each and every day that the American people have no idea about. It also made me think about what I would’ve done had I been in the shoes of the soldiers who were working in the prison. Would I have done the same thing? Or would I have had the presence of mind and the gut feeling inside to stop what was going on? Or would the toils of war and the situation have gotten to me and tossed all my common sense out the window like it did with these men and women. I don’t think these are bad people in the film. Some of them are. But most of them are just like any of us and were just following orders. I myself can’t say that I wouldn’t have done the same thing. War changes a lot of things.   

                I was, however, surprised at the stupidity of some of these people. Most of them say in their interviews that they had a gut feeling that something was wrong and they knew they shouldn’t be doing these things, yet they still took photographs of the events, and were, themselves, shown in the photographs. If you know you are doing something wrong, or even worse, committing a crime, how can you be stupid enough to take pictures of it? That’s one thing I can’t get past about this film.

                Another thing I kept thinking about was the fact that the lower ranks of the army were the ones getting jail time for these crimes. The people who are in charge have to be aware of what’s going on, and in some cases were more than likely giving the orders to carry out the actions shown in the film. They are the ones who are held to a higher standard than even most people in the military, and they turned their backs on what was happening.  The people who risk their lives to be in that prison in the first place are just following orders from the big shots who sit behind a desk, yet they are the ones doing the jail time. Do they deserve it? Probably. They did commit the acts, and in some cases, the things they did to the prisoners weren’t handed down from the desk of a general, but I still think it is unfair for all the blame to be placed on the men and women in the video. 

                I thought this film was very interesting. As with most of the videos we watch in class, it makes yo9ur mind wonder about what happens every day in our country and dealing with our country that regular citizens have no idea about.