Monday, March 14, 2005

A few more bad apples

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Army soldiers in Iraq filmed themselves kicking a gravely wounded prisoner in the face and making the arm of a corpse appear to wave, then titled the effort "Ramadi Madness" after the city where it was made.

The video, made public on Monday, was shot by Florida National Guard soldiers. They edited and compiled it into a DVD in January 2004, with various sections bearing titles such as "Those Crafty Little Bastards" and "Another Day, Another Mission, Another Scumbag."

[. . .]

The ACLU has obtained thousands of pages of documents from the Pentagon and said they show an pattern of widespread abuses of detainees by military forces in Iraq. Digital pictures that were disclosed last year of U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison drew international condemnation.

[. . .]


I believe the Geneva Conventions contain an article prohibiting photographing prisoners in humiliating situations. One of you lawyer weenies can correct me if I'm wrong.

So how long are we gonna call these abuses the 'acts of a few bad apples' before we realize this is a leadership problem. This is the culture that comes from occupation. And this is an indicator, when morale is low and the troops begin to look at the locals as a lower form of life, the policy is bankrupt. Will the Iraqis ever respect us? Will the people of the world respect us after this is over, one way or the other? Whatever good we do in Iraq will be overshadowed by the cumulative effect of these occurrances. I wonder how long it will take to repair the damage done to our national reputation by the Bush administration and the Republican Congress?

Link via Corrente.

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