A Correction on Tom, However

One thing about Friedman's post is that he asks why the president didn't think to close down Abu Ghraib (and reopen it as a technical college).

The thing is that they are discussing doing just that, although I've heard the term "raze" rather than open it as a technical college. John McCain and several more GOP Republicans have suggested just that, and that it should be done as soon as possible.

While I can understand that, since our forces were there and they needed some holding facility, they immediately pressed Abu Ghraib into service. But Abu Ghraib is well known throughout Iraq as one of Saddam's worst prisons and torture facilities. It seemed like a bad choice in the beginning and an extremely poor one in retrospect with the news of the abuse upon us.

Here's a thought: rather than the US doing something to Abu Ghraib, why don't we let the people of Iraq decide what to do with it. It's their country. Razing the building will not raze it from memories - theirs or ours. But let the Iraqis decide. They might even keep it open as a museum to remind them of the tortures of both Saddam and their post-Saddam occupiers. We as Americans might not like that last part, but it's their history, and they should be the ones to choose what to do.