Charles Graner Is Not America

Let’s get this straight: Charles Graner is not America. America would never hold a knife to his wife’s throat, then say when she woke that he was considering killing her. And America’s wife in turn would never call her husband “my own Hannibal Lecter.” Am I right, or what? Charles Graner may be Hannibal Lecter, but he is not America. America is not that kind of husband. Nor would America email his adolescent children photos of himself torturing naked Iraqi prisoners and say “look what Daddy gets to do!” Am I right? America is not that kind of father. America would never torture naked Iraqi prisoners. Let’s be absolutely clear about all of this. And America’s ex-lover and co-defendant would never whisper to the sketch artist at America’s trial: “You forgot the horns.” Charles Graner may or may not have horns, but America is horn-free. America does not torture prisoners. America may render them, fully clothed, to Egypt or Syria, for further interrogation, or to men like Charles Graner, but America is not, ipso facto, Egypt or Syria, and Charles Graner is not now nor has he ever been America. And don’t talk to me about Guantanamo. Please! Let’s get this straight. You and I know who America is. We know what America does and doesn’t do, because we (not Charles Graner!) are America. Am I right? Is this all clear? Tell me—am I right, or what?