Quote from Pabst:
This is no scandal. Imagine if there were no photos but only press reports like the following,"human-rights activist's charge that Iraqi prisoners were subjected to humiliation including nude twister and being led around on a leash by a 21yo woman." Yawn.
Compare the "outrage" over humiliation to the massacre of 119 civilians by Lt.Calley at My Lai in 1968. This shits like a sit-com compared to woman and children being slaughtered in Nam. Neither Rummy nor anyone else in the admin will lose their job over this BS.
You seem to be underplaying the problem here - there appear to have been quite a few deaths in captivity, including shootings, beatings to death etc. US senators and Seymour Hersh have also mentioned rapes, killings, and child abuse - to quote one of them "we're not just talking about humiliating treatment". Does this sit lightly with you because it is "not as bad" as one of the worst civilian massacres in the history of western democracy?
In addition, you are forgetting one crucial distinction - it was never US policy in Vietnam to go on killing rampages in villages and slaughter Vietnamese peasants. Lt. Calley was clearly acting against army protocol and rules of engagement, as demonstrated by the fact that a US helicopter crew landed and threatened to shoot him if he continued his rampage. Evidence so far shows that in Iraq it *is* US policy to beat, abuse, and humiliate prisoners in order to coerce information out of them. Dumb reservist prison guards are being leant on by military intelligence to rough up prisoners, as a systematic policy. The difference between one or two rogue personnel, and widespread institutionalised abuse and torture, is rather significant.
For Rumsfeld to be ignorant of a deliberate systematic policy of illegal abuse of prisoners is a damning indictment of his leadership and oversight as secretary of defence. Now I don't think that Rummy sanctioned this stuff, but being completely ignorant of it, and taking no action whatsoever despite many reports over many months from impartial and respected bodies like the Red Cross , is pure management incompetence. If I were Bush, I would fire Rumsfeld immediately for gross negligence - nothing to do with beatings etc, but purely due to total ineptitude at being able to oversee and keep control of the situation. Remember that regardless of the human rights issues, this is an incredible military and PR blunder in that it exposes coalition troops to harm, including terrible torture if they should be captured, for no good reason at all. It is incompetence both on the PR side and the military side, that has massively reduced the chances of a successful outcome in Iraq. Rumsfeld's poor oversight and lack of perception has jeapordised the entire mission and the safety of the professional and courageous troops fighting it out on the ground.
Finally, the fact that someone else has done something worse than you does not excuse illegal or disgraceful behaviour. Imagine if a rapist plead in the dock that he should be let off because hey, it's not like he killed somebody. This is the worst kind of logical fallacy - a cheap evasion that attempts to sweep atrocities under the carpet.
