Third Party & Independents: Archives

We have all heard “I was just following orders” before. That was a lousy excuse then and, in the perspective of history, is even worse today.
Those who are guilty of this travesty should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, no mater how high up the ladder they are.
Those in Guantanamo should be treated with the same respect we demand for ourselves.

The administration quite clearly created the preconditions needed for these abuses to take place.

The damage caused by 9/11 to the US cannot alone be measured by the numbers of lives lost on that day. Since that day, the US has acted in ways that it will almost certainly come to regret in years to come.

I just had a discussion over on the blue board regarding personal responsibility. The subject was war crimes, but the principle is the same.

I just think it’s important to remember that these morons made the decision to break the law. The diplomatic and political fallout is huge in this case, but that’s still the bottom line.

I do think that we need to be very careful not to pre-judge all who worked there, or their superiors. The investigation process will, and probably already has, determined exactly who did what. The individuals and their higher-ups who either worked in the prison or were in charge of it should be, and almost certainly will be, punished to the extent of their involvement.

Those screaming for Rumsfield’s head are mostly the same folks who want anybody in the White House but Bush, in my opinion. It would be like demanding jail time for Bill Gates because of costly internet crashes resulting from security holes in the Windows operating system. Well…okay, maybe in that case. [humor]

I’m also concerned that the AG incidents are being used by some to help condemn the overall Iraq war. The war didn’t cause these poor, innocent young men and women to become idiots. They made that leap under their own power. The war should be debated on its own merits or lack of them.

It was a wacky night shift. I wouldn’t read more into it than that. When you put ill-prepared young people in a bad situation, bad things tend to happen. It’s the fault of the army, not Rumsfeld, Bush, or Cheney no matter how hard the New York Times wants it to be. While I don’t sanction making any prisoners play naked twister, as I’ve said before, the period of time that the United States controlled the Abu Ghraib prison will go down in history as the Golden Age of that place considering what went on their before the war and what has inevitably gone on there since the Iraqis took over control of the goverment.

US Army Report on Torture of Iraqis in Abu Ghraib Prison

I agree and I disagree.
There should be no rush to judgement, but those found guilty should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Those who participated in the photo shoot should be, by all rights, in deep doo doo.

It is to the CREDIT of our nation that we make a big deal about abu-Ghraib and investigate and put a stop to such activities.

If we were al-Qaeda the big scandal would be “why were those prisoners not beheaded?”

What disgusts me though, is that in spite of this glaring difference, we get painted as the “evil ones” in this conflict. To all of the ones who participate in such painting, there will be Karma. Count on that.

There are two tragedies in this story. First the victims, who have suffered under U.S. domination in ways similar to life under Hussien. The other is enlisted Reservists, torn from their civilian lives for no good reason. Yes, they should have risen above the military command system and answered only to their conscience, but as the Stanford Prison experiment proved, it is almost impossible to do. Officers will go home and the corporals and privates will be sent to prison. We’ve seen this pattern before, S&Ls, Iran-Contra……..CIA drug running, ATF, FBI, NYPD, San Jose murder of US civilians. Bush, North, Reno or Guiliani will distance themselves from the crime but also protect the real perpetrators, occassionally sending an officer up the river when necessary to get reelected or stop the rioting.