Chilling Article

               A recent New Yorker article titled Exposure was a really interesting read. Not only was the focus of the article, which centered around the military actions at Abu Ghraib, but the format through which Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris wrote this article was noteable. It opens with a scene, which I think by now we can all agree is a common start for a feature, and then starts to seem like a profile of a woman named Sabrina Harman, the soldier who is infamously pictured smiling with a thumbs up over a corpse in Abu Ghraib. However, the article also alternates to telling the actual happenings in the prison camp/ FOB (Forward Operating Base). What really stands out is that the authors included excerpts from letters that Harman sent to a woman she calls her wife. Between the descriptions of the pictures Harman took, and her personal reasons behind taking the pictures, the authors sort of give both sides to an unfortunate crime against humanity (personal opinion here) that was a result of beaurocratic red tape in the military and general lack of SOP in the case of Abu Ghraib. Even though the article is long, the use of scene, letters, and personal testimony and general description of the events, makes it worth reading. The very controversial nature of what this article about is also notable in that Gourevitch and Morris somehow don't tread too deep on either side of the controversy; they present the information they found, and helped readers to see not just what the external realities of the events were, but to also give a look at the mentality and personal thoughts of the soldiers involved with the incidents. It's hard to imagine any other person could treat a fellow human the way the prisoners were treated at Abu Ghraib, and i think the article sheds light on the far reaches of human cruelty. The scenes and descriptions edge on being a bit graphic but what you finally finish the article, you walk away from it with new insight, and a sort of disdain for the way people take advantage of power and disorder. Gourevitch and Morris also added in the ramifications that the soldiers who took photographs there faced, adding a sort of  closure to the piece.  The very end of the article relates a photo of a prisoner who was nicknamed Gilligan, to the recognizable image of Christ on the cross. I found the way that Gourevitch and Morris wrote this to be especially interesting. If you only want to read part of this article, I would recommend reading the end because of the interesting way the writers incorporate Jesus' crucifiction into the article.