Similarities Between Abu Ghraib And Bataan Death March

Abu Ghraib Torture and Prison Abuse and The Bataan Death March are two comparative events in US history. The Abu Ghraib Torture and Prison Abuse was a series of human rights violations against prisoners in Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq, which began in March of 2003. The Bataan Death March was the relocation by foot of American Prisoners from the Bataan Peninsula to Camp O, Donnel a prisoner camp of the Japanese during World War 2. While both Abu Ghraib and The Bataan Death March are a result of poor training and leadership, Abu Ghraib was more of the morale breakdown and embarrassment of the prisoners while The Bataan Death March was pure hostility and brutality towards the ill and exhausted American troops.
American soldiers who were not …show more content…
The POWs at the containment camps were not liberated till 3 years later when a small team of US Army Rangers was sent in by General Macarthur who has just made his famous return to the Philippines fulfilling his promise that he would return when he was forced to leave after the fall of Bataan. The POWs were so skinny and 99% of them had at least one disease and was on the brink of starvation. One of the prisoners even refused to leave with the troops not recognizing them as American soldiers and the troops were forced to carry him out until he started moving on his own. Of the tens of thousands of troops at the Bataan Peninsula only 500 made it home. The surrender of Bataan was the largest US military surrender to a foreign power. The men of Bataan were fighting under the false hope that reinforcements were arriving to assist them but President Roosevelt had actually sent the available troops to Europe to fight Hitler who he believed to be the more serious threat. The troops at Bataan held out as long as they could but were ultimately forced to surrender shortly after General MacArthur was ordered to pull out and move to Australia when the loss of the Philippines was eminent. The Japanese rode into camp the next day and started to round up all the prisoners. The Japanese were yelling orders at the men in Japanese and the men did not understand and they would be beaten for reacting to slowly. The mean were then forced to form lines of fives with about 100 mean to a group and march in whatever they had on and with whatever they had with them. Men that were slower than the others due to injury or illness were bayoneted or shot. The bodies of the men were left in the road and run over by tanks and trucks of the