1.4.1 - 1.4.2 Key Question

Question 1

What is the key question?

Answer 1

Were the soldiers at Abu Ghraib acting under blind obedience to authority?

Question 2

4 x AO1

Answer 2

• US soldiers breached the human rights of the prisoners held at the US run Abu Ghraib present by putting them in stress positions and nudity and there were no known cases of death by government organisation
• The soldiers Jobs were to extract information about terrorist activity from the detainees by ‘softening them up’ during the night shift ready for interrogation the next day
• General Sanchez sent out a memorandum that allowed extreme interrogation to occur, however he took it back it a month later

This is an issue for society as if the Geneva convention is reinterpreted it means that American prisoners of war can no longer expect the same level of humane treatment and protection, equally if the USA has rewritten the rules then other countries will follow and the intentions of the Geneva convention will not be upheld

Question 3

4 x AO3

agentic, autonomous, blind/destructive

Answer 3

• Milligrams findings show that 65% of participants shocked to 450 V even after the learner cried out in pain for only getting a word pair wrong. Therefore it explains why low ranking soldiers who were told that they will save American lives will obey CIA orders to abuse Iraqi detainees, especially in a high stress situation in Iraq
• Graner and the soldiers on duty in the night shift were in the agentic state as they were following orders from the CIA to soften up the detainees ready for interrogation the next day. Therefore this explains why they abuse the prisoners and put them in stress positions as they felt they did not have a choice as the CIA is a powerful institution
• However Darby was in the autonomous state as he handed the photos of the guards abusing prisoners that were on Graner’s CD, even though it would cause problems for his friends. Therefore showing not all soldiers were willingly following orders and some felt responsibility for reporting things that were morally wrong
• The soldiers were in a state of blind/destructive obedience as they followed morally wrong orders from the CIA. Therefore this explains why lower ranked soldiers tortured prisoners as they thought it was not their place to question orders even if they would have avoided harm to detainees