“Abusive Soldiers Will Pay!”
So, we now know that it takes two months for a report submitted for the eyes of our military elite to reach the ranks where it can have some effect. Unfortunately, for Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Meyer, George W. Bush, and the American People, it takes less time for pictures of the dastardly handling of prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad to reach the newspapers.
War crimes, previously limited to the likes of Slobodan Milosevic, will now, hopefully, be visited on the military personnel responsible for the atrocities being suffered by (mostly) innocent Iraqis in the aforementioned military prison. Do I dare wish this kind of war crimes trial on my fellow citizens? Yes… if they broke the law, they must pay if the US is to maintain ANY semblance of credibility in the eyes of the world.
If President Bush was so concerned about this abuse before this week, then why did he not immediately investigate it as soon as he heard about it? It would seem that Bush heard about this before the reporters started getting info on it - but he didn’t seem to see fit to investigate it before the pictures were released. Ahhh… therein lies the answer. Bush is not upset about the TORTURE… he’s upset about the PICTURES… and their release.
So, we’re to believe, from these reports, that the soldiers at the bottom - the Military Police guarding these prisoners - are to blame. Hmmm… blame the front-line worker. It’s what happens consistently in my business, customer support. Well, guys, we’re there with you - certain that you were just following orders, treating your fellow human beings to some nice, inhumane, sexual treatment. Too bad those same officers that ordered you to do this are no longer standing behind you, or well, rather, they are - but now it’s more akin to some of the poses you made those Iraqi prisoners stand in - you know the ones - behind each other, in some quirky homosexual pose, faking anal sex.
As an American Citizen, all I want to say to all who took part in this is: “Thanks. Thanks for giving the world another excuse to call us on the carpet. Thanks for giving the Arab world in general, and the Iraqi people specifically, another reason to distrust us. Thank you for allowing your pranks to upset the sensibilities of the world while you had your fun. And thanks go, in no small part, to the military bureaucracy that was set up to prevent the info from percolating to the top in a timely fashion to stop the bullshit.”
I hope that ALL of the military personnel involved in this and who knew about it, all the way up the chain, serve their due time in some brig somewhere… but you know what? I don’t know that sodomy occurs there… so maybe in one of our “regular” prisons, with the guy named “Chip” in the shower who just waits for you to drop the soap… yeah - I think that’s more appropriate.
At least the world might let us police our mess ourselves…
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