See No Evil

I would think absolutely. It's important to note that there is a positive dimension to denial. Denial is a defense mechanism that typically develops in childhood as a method of survival, of denying powerful, unpleasant emotions. The problem is a lot of people learn this as a way of dealing with life. The coffins and the pictures of abuse are sickening, disgusting, so there are some real powerful emotions there that people want to avoid. But I think also there's an issue of loss going on. There's a really powerful political myth about the United States; we're the land of the free, the home of the brave. We go out with honor to bring freedom to Iraq, and so on. These kinds of photographs really threaten the validity of that myth. That's a real loss.

Whether or not that myth is true or whether Abu Ghraib is an anomaly, people never like having their assumptions challenged.

Absolutely. I think there's a lot of [people saying] "If I don't see it, it doesn't exist." You saw that with Gen. [Richard] Myers, head of the Joint Chiefs, he got this report in January, and he never read it. Rumsfeld had the report, and he didn't read it. It's like, psychologically, "If I don't read it, maybe it will go away." The parallels to the [Roman] Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal are [right there]. Again, it's protecting the institution, throwing up a few underlings but protecting the chain of command, which is obviously what the Catholic church did, big time.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am guessing you lean politically a little more to the left?

Yeah, I'd probably have to say that. I have voted for Republicans, however.

Just not Republicans you felt were in denial?