Rumsfeld solves the abuse problem

[techweenie]

Rumsfeld has banned all cell phones with picture taking ability from Iraq.

Presumably on the assumption we won't get upset about what we can't see...

On the other hand, the right-wind spin machine was in top gear last week, with Miller, Limbaugh et. al. repeating over and over some story about prisoners having "womens panties put on their heads" as if that were the worst torture applied to prisoners. They timed this spin to coincide with the second round of pictures -- two of people posing with a dead prisoner and one of a feces-covered prisoner.

[techweenie]

You thought I was being cynical.

Look at the quote I found:

"It is the photographs that gives one the vivid realization of what actually took place. Words don’t do it. ... You see the photographs, and you get a sense of it, and you cannot help but be outraged." -- Donald Rumsfeld

[island911]

Y'yeah . ."Outrage. . ."I'm OFFended. . .

[KevinP73]

Frankly if you really want to talk about torture you need to talk to American prisoners of the Viet Nam era, or persons interogated by the KGB during the cold war, or office workers looking out the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center and seeing a 747 headed at you. I know it's just me (and I'm full of it ....right ) but panties on someones head (while it's still attached to one's neck) or a naked man piramid really doesn't sound too tragic to me. And who amongst us hasn't had some bimbo point at our penis and laugh out loud......OK well maybe that is just me.

[techweenie]

"And who amongst us hasn't had some bimbo point at our penis and laugh out loud......OK well maybe that is just me."

Still beats having someone point at your dead body and laugh.

[Aurel]

For me, those few men have dishonored the entire US army. I have lost my respect for US soldiers, period. It is not a matter of debating whether it was torture or not. When I see a moron with a sadistic/amused grin on their face looking at a dead body, I need not see anything else. Respect is lost.

Aurel

[dhoward]

Originally posted by Aurel
When I see a moron with a sadistic/amused grin on their face looking at a dead body, I need not see anything else. Respect is lost.

Aurel

..and a lot of people will lose sleep over that.

[Aurel]

Problem is, it is not just me...

Aurel

[Schrup]

Originally posted by Aurel
For me, those few men have dishonored the entire US army. I have lost my respect for US soldiers, period.

How can you lose something you never had???

[Aurel]

Well now it is gone for sure.


Aurel

[nostatic]

that material doesn't go with her skin color at all. Can we get the Fab 5 to fix this up a bit?

[GrindingGears]

Originally posted by Schrup
How can you lose something you never had???

[KevinP73]

Originally posted by Aurel
For me, those few men have dishonored the entire US army. I have lost my respect for US soldiers, period. Respect is lost.

Aurel

And those soldiers continue to give thier lives for your freedom!!
Aren't you the fortunate one?

[djmcmath]

Hang on, let me get this straight -- a Frenchman has lost respect for American soldiers? Are we talking about the same French, the ones that haven't had a military victory since Waterloo? What a riot ...

[Rot 911]

Would this be abuse?

BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Advertisement






Here's a story no American news organization thought worth covering last week, so you'll just have to take it from me. In the southern Iraqi town of Amara, 20 men from Scotland's Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders came under attack from 100 or so of Muqtada al-Sadr's ''insurgents.'' So they fixed bayonets and charged.

It was the first British bayonet charge since the Falklands War 20 years ago. And at the end of it some 35 of the enemy were dead in return for three minor wounds on the Argylls' side.

If you're used to smart bombs, unmanned drones and doing it all by computer back at HQ, you're probably wondering why a modern Western army is still running around with bayonets at the end of their rifles. The answer is that it's a very basic form of psychological warfare.

''If you're defending a position and you see someone advancing with a bayonet, you may be more inclined to surrender,'' Col. Ed Brown told the British newspaper the Guardian. ''I've never been bayoneted, but I can imagine it's pretty gruesome.'' Or as Cpl. Jones, veteran of the Sudan, used to say every week on the ancient BBC sitcom ''Dad's Army'': ''They don't like it up 'em.''

[fintstone]

Admit it, they were just breaking up an innocent wedding party.

[GrindingGears]

Originally posted by djmcmath
Hang on, let me get this straight -- a Frenchman has lost respect for American soldiers? Are we talking about the same French, the ones that haven't had a military victory since Waterloo? What a riot ...

Actually, the French LOST at Waterloo. They got *****in worked by Wellington (Brits) and some Prussians.

[CamB]

I'm stealing this quote from Time magazine, but it reflects how I think.

You know that feeling you all had when you saw the pictures from Abu Graib - the disgust that "Americans could do that".

Vast parts of the rest of the world saw you like that BEFORE the pictures came out - the pictures have only intensified the feelings.

In Time, the quote was something along the lines of "forcing Americans to see themselves how the world sees them".

So Kevin, while you might be right in that the US is not the worst perpertrator of torture ever, you're wrong because the standard required of you is so much higher. In particular given you apparently invaded Iraq solely on humanitarian grounds .

[djmcmath]

Good point -- corrected sentence should read "...haven't had a victory since before Waterloo?"

Dan

[KevinP73]

Originally posted by CamB
So Kevin, while you might be right in that the US is not the worst perpertrator of torture ever, you're wrong because the standard required of you is so much higher. In particular given you apparently invaded Iraq solely on humanitarian grounds .

I can't even begin to argue that point. Your absolutly RIGHT.
I just wish our President (or whom ever made the decision to invade) had the balls to call it what it was, A Freakin Invasion, and NOT have to tippy toe around some politcal arena destined to be second guessed and criticized . The Middle East has been a can of worms ( or more correctly a bag of rattlesnakes) and I think the U.S. should either get out now, completely and for ever, or turn that damn desert to glass and start selling our newly acquired oil to the rest of the world.