Troops are shown giving the ‘thumbs-up’ over the dead body of a detainee. There are allegations in the article that the detainee was beaten to death.
Words fail.
Ya know, I agree this sucks mightily, but I’m willing to bet this shit went on during every war humans have ever fought, since we crawled out of the trees and learned how to bang two rocks together. It’s just in the era of digital cameras, worldwide media companies, and the Internet, it’s much harder to keep under wraps.
War makes animals out of people, even the “good” ones. As it is, as it has been, as it ever shall be. 
I don’t get it. Rush Limbaugh said that nothing that went on at Abu Ghraib was any worse than a Britney Spears concert. That means either that Britney Spears actually murders people on stage (I have to admit I’m kind of out of touch with popular culture, so maybe this is true) or that Rush Limbaugh is full of shit. Either way, I’m pretty confused.
I agree. That’s about the best way it can be put and that’s why we should not enter into wars lightly. Shit like this is almost gauranteed to happen and, these days, people are going to find out about it.
It’s a pretty well known fact that Rush is full of shit…as much as I detest Britney, you can rest assured that the only thing she slays is good taste.
So, what conclusion are we to draw from this? That we shouldn’t be upset about it? Not gonna happen.
They were talking on NPR this morning about two studies…sorry I have no cites…
In the first they made a pretend prison. With one set of people guards and the other prisoners. It was supposed to last two weeks but was canceled after six days because the guards had become so cruel.
In the other, people were told by men in white lab coats to push a button that they were told would apply 450 volts of electricity to a person in the next room. Even though they could hear people screaming and yelling, which were faked, they pushed the button because they were told by someone in authority to do it.
Take what you will from that.
Stanford Prison Experiment. The parallels to Abu Ghraib have already been discussed at great length on this board. I leave the rest as an exercise for the reader (cos I’m lazy and sleepy and I’m going to bed.)
The president’s wife needs to jumpstart reform in military prisons by touring Iraq touting the phrase “Just say no to War Crimes.”
It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.
Holy shit :eek: :eek: :eek:
The second experiment was the Milgram experiment. Also scary.
Could be, but in the subset of invasions done ostensibly to bring liberty to the locals, how often did that liberty involve the military beating civilians to death?
I knew about that. Never heard of the Prison experiment before though.
As distressing as those photos are Lib, you should note that the Halabja gas may have been Iranian in origin. If you were suggesting that US abuses still don’t compare to Saddam’s, they might not be the best means of doing so.
Sickening images alright.
I really think that the sensible(for them) thing to do would be for the Admin to release all the pictures. Take the shit now and try to move on.
If the continue to seep out and get worse all the time which is the pattern now it will just continue to hack away at the support at home. Also if they are eventually released say after a victorious election campaign by the GOP and they show murder and rape as reported the public including GOP supporters could loose all remaining respect for the Admin.
I’d be surprised if this happens as the Bush Admin don’t seem to be able to deal with PR issues very well.
Although they’re not quite as bad as these (if you’re willing to play the mass murder game), I’m willing to bet that the op was talking about Iraqi prisoner abuse pictures, and not just horrible photos from Iraq.
Are you being deliberately obtuse?
And if that doesn’t work, we can always change the subject and talk about things Saddam Hussein did (even if the same crime has been attributed to Iran)… that should wrap it up nicely and deflect the rage the pictures will provoke. Whew. Problem solved.