Brockes, Emma. “What happens in war happens”.

Lynndie England, who was a twenty-one-year-old private in the American army in 2003, is one of the three women soldiers charged with and convicted of abusing and torturing Iraqis in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Among the seven convicted American soldiers, England appears in many of the leaked photographs, leading to her becoming “the face of the scandal” (Brockes), and thus the object of great attention and even obsession in the media. This particular interview with The Guardian presents a profile of Lynndie England which both features and goes beyond common tropes pertaining to the figure of the perpetrator, in general, and the female perpetrator, in specific.

The tendency to psychologize perpetrators and explain their actions in terms of psychopathology has been pervasive in both criminology and popular culture’s representation of the figure of the perpetrator (Üngör and Anderson 8 – 9). Lynndie England’s case is no different as her background was closely examined. This interview delves into her family’s dynamics when she was growing up, her education and learning disability, her diagnosis with selective mutism, her love of hunting, her work at a chicken factory in addition to her relationship with the other (more specifically male) American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison. It also tackles the nightmares she has been having and the antidepressants she has to take. Brockes explains, “After the photos came out, people looked at England’s childhood for some kind of explanatory episode, an early demonstration of cruelty, or else evidence that she had herself been abused.” Seeking to understand England’s actions through dissecting her background and psychologizing her ignores/excludes, to a large extent, the political, economic, and cultural contexts that enabled and fed this perpetration. This framing of the figure of the perpetrator in a way that does not confront the system that produced him/her is quite common.

Furthermore, the focus on her relationship with “Specialist Charles Graner, the father of her child” and on Graner’s past of domestically abusing his ex-wife prior to his enlistment in the American army (Brockes), lends itself to the stereotypical representation of the figure of the female perpetrator who is typified as lacking agency and as being herself a victim. England is said to be “unduly influenced” by the “manipulative” Graner (Brockes). Her commander, General Karpinski, describes her as an “impoverished, undereducated young woman” who “latched on to Graner as a protector and “father figure”” (Brockes). In the Guardian interview, England tells Brockes how her perpetration was explained away in court, “They said in the trial that authority figures really intimidate me. I always aim to please. They said that one of the reasons Graner easily intimidated me was because I saw him as an authority figure. So I was really compliant.” This huge emphasis on her background, psyche, and relationship with Graner frames her as a “tortured” victim of abuse and manipulation as Gary S. Winkler declares in his sympathetic biography of her TORTURED: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib and the Photographs that Shocked the World.

However, between psychopathologizing her (as is typical in the portrayal of perpetrators) and victimizing her (as is typical in the depiction of the female perpetrator) in media and writings that are critical of her perpetration, the interview shows her heroic depiction in supportive rhetoric and writings which, interestingly, masculinize her and emasculate the Iraqi men she tortured and hystericize the Iraqi women victims. England speaks of the mail she has received from her fans in the US and overseas. At some point, the interview is interrupted by a man who walks over to express his support and admiration of England’s actions. He tells her, ““Good going! Damned good thing! When you were in Abu Ghraib, you shoulda cut ’em all off.” He makes a castrating motion with two fingers” (Brockes). Far from being a psychologically unstable victim, England is discursively framed as a hypermasculine hero. Joseph Massad explains, “American imperial military culture supermasculinises not only its own male soldiers, but also its female soldiers who can partake in the feminisation of Iraqi men”.

When Brockes asks her whether she regrets her actions or feels any sympathy for her victims, England “shakes her head”. Her lack of remorse and her patriotic explanation of her actions emphasizes the importance of examining the political, economic, and cultural contexts of as well as the pervasive ideologies feeding the War on Terror.

England emerges in this interview as a complex figure whose representation has consistently been simplistic and lacked depth. Therefore, this interview could be of significant relevance to researchers studying the figure of the female perpetrator.

Works Cited:

Massad, Joseph. “Imperial Mementos.” Masress, May 20, 2004. https://www.masress.com/en/ahramweekly/20376.

Üngör, Uğur Ümit, and Kjell Anderson. “From Perpetrators to Perpetration: Definitions, Typologies, and Processes.” Chapter. In The Routledge International Handbook of Perpetrator Studies, edited by Susanne C. Knittel and Zachary J. Goldberg, 7–22. Routledge, 2020.

Winkler, Gary S. Tortured: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib, and the Photographs That Shocked the World. Keyser, West Virginia: Bad Apple Books, 2009.

Author of this entry: Hagar Abdalbar

Emma, Brockes. “’What Happens in War Happens’: Interview with Lynndie England.” The Guardian, January 3, 2009. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jan/03/abu-ghraib-lynndie-england-interview.