I have wanted to write something personal about the recent revelation of prisoner abuses in Iraq for some time now, but know that any time I try, my words will be wholly inadequate.

How does one express the shock, the anger, the embarrassment of being associated – as a Westerner – with these brutal human animals who were supposed to represent liberation, democracy and freedom?

I have always been opposed to the war in Iraq. I have been sceptical as to the real motives behind the mission, and worried at the UKs inability to stand on its own two feet, to ignore the majority of public opinion and once more charge onwards with the United States.

Despite my opposition to war, I had hoped that those who engaged in it might have some measure of humanity in them when it came to dealing with prisoners of war. Unfortunately, this seems far from reality.

Actually, why should I be surprised? When it comes down to its most basic level, war is about killing. Governments – the men who can command but don’t get their hands dirty – can spout rhetoric about delivering liberation and freedom, but at the end of the day, it’s about killing off an enemy – someone whose beliefs and ideologies don’t agree with yours.

I suppose I had hopes that a certain level of basic humanity might exist, even in the hearts and minds of men and women who have the mental ability to survive in the armed forces. Yet the photographic documentation blows this hope clean out of the water.

Not only do these atrocities take place, but they are presented as trophies to the world by those carrying out these savageries. What other reason could there be for making images of this abuse, this torture, this outrageous treatment of captive human beings – than that the perpetrators are actually proud of what they are doing?

I must be honest, I found an extra measure of shock when I saw images of women gloating over the bodies of dead Iraqi prisoners. My naive traditionalist mind still believes that women have a greater degree of humanity in them than men. Maybe this is still true, but the army life has squeezed it from them.

It is difficult not to tar the whole organisation with the same brush of hatred, when this sort of news breaks, and particularly when it is suggested that this is but the tip of the iceberg – that this represents institutionalised abuse. If men and women who join the armed forces are trained to behave, act and react in the same way in wartime situations, what hope can we possibly have that this is not the normal reaction to the captured ‘enemy’. That this is not the result of exposed, trained and harnessed human savagery towards another human being who is, supposedly, a threat, once overcome? That it is not enough to capture and then treat with dignity – instead to brutalise and humiliate.

War is an evil, yet this goes even beyond the boundaries set by war. Ultimately this is individual evil, human against human – and whilst the institutions must be accountable for the part they have played, no individual can be allowed to hide in their institution but must be accountable for their own actions.