Friday, April 30, 2004

The Ugly American

And here is how the families of those soldiers excuse them...

Lawson, of Newburg, W.Va., said his nephew was being portrayed "as a monster. He's just the guy they put in charge of the prison."...Lawson and Martha Frederick, the sergeant's wife, said Frederick was being made a scapegoat for commanders who gave him no guidance on managing hundreds of POWs with just a handful of ill-trained, poorly equipped troops..."I can assure you Chip Frederick had no idea how to humiliate an Arab until he met up" with higher-ranking people who told him how, [his attorney] said.

..."We really don't know how those prisoners are behaving," said Zeenithia Davis, who is in the Navy in Mississippi. "There's a line between heinous war crimes and maintaining discipline."

...The alleged abuses of prisoners were "stupid, kid things — pranks," Terrie England said. "And what the (Iraqis) do to our men and women are just? The rules of the Geneva Convention, does that apply to everybody or just us?"
  USA Today article

Stupid kid pranks.

Stupid, yes. Viscious and depraved. Let's pull a couple of "pranks" on Mrs. England - let's stand her naked on a box with electrodes attached to her genitals and a hood over her head and see if she thinks it qualifies as just a stupid prank.

To add insult to injury, Americans are going to defend these criminals. At least in the Viet Nam My Lai scandals, Americans really seemed to be shocked and ashamed of the perpetrators.

These days, we're apparently determined to give the Nazis a run for their money in the brutal, soulless, scourge of the planet competition.

Actually, I think we may be pulling ahead.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

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