Idiots in Iraq

[bigmacbear]

Over on the Bears Mailing List, someone mentioned a New York Times article which discusses the possible release of images showing American soldiers having sex with one another at Abu Ghirab prison, and he thinks we should be on the alert for right-wingers trying to shift the blame for the abuses in Iraq onto gays in the military.

My response follows.
Uh, if they are the same two American soldiers who were depicted in the pictures already plastered all over the news media, they are a man and a woman. So there may or may not be any pictures of male-male sex.

Which doesn't make the taking of the pictures any less idiotic, in my humble opinion. Why generate evidence that can so easily be used against you, not only at a court-martial but in the all-important court of world public opinion? What really makes me angry about this whole thing is the way these photos were used to justify the disproportionately heinous murder of an American civilian job-seeker in Iraq.

Comments

[verytiredmummy.livejournal.com]

It is important to remember that the men who murdered Nick Berg in such a deeply sickening manner were looking for excuses anyway. If the Abu Ghirab abuse scandal had not happened, they would have murdered on some other pretext. Also, they did not cleave his head off quickly with an axe - they cut it off slowly with a knife - Halal goat style. They were NOT interested in justice - they were proving a point and playing to an audience.

...AND before anyone asks - I have not seen the video and would NOT want to watch it - I feel physically sick just thinking about it. I question the motivation and mental health status of ANYONE other than professional journos, military and the government who would log on to the Internet to watch this.

I think Mr Berg was somewhat naive in going to Iraq in the first place. I find it somewhat ironic and deeply saddening that he was trying to exit Iraq and missed his plane home because he was held up by the security forces.

As for the scandal - it is quite clear that there has been a serious lack of discipline at multiple levels. We can't rush in as moral crusaders and then fail to uphold the highest of morals ourselves. Personally I think the whole think smacks of an attitude problem which stems from Duh-bya himself.

On the gay sex angle - from what I have seen and heard in the media, it wasn't soldiers having sex - it was prisoners being forced to commit sex acts or simulations thereof as a way to torture and humiliate them and their religion. Anyone on BML trying to get a cheap sex thrill out of that ALSO needs their head examining.

A quick note on the UK angle - Blair is insisting that pictures of UK forces commiting abuse have been forged especially for use by the seedier and less investigative side of our tabloid media. I wouldn't put it past them (sad and stupid gits that they can be) BUT we shall have to wait and see. We should also not forget that THIS IS A WAR - there is propaganda value in everything. EVERYTHING we see or read should be taken with a measure of caution.

[jockbearwny.livejournal.com]

We have two issues here.

1. Abuse of prisoners. Why the hell would anyone take pictures of this??? I'm sure stuff like this has happened in other wars. Just talk to any Viet Nam vet and they will tell you. Did they take pictures? NO! So we either have some extremely stupid and undisciplined soldiers at which point they do need to be court-martialled along with their superiors for letting it happen, or we have someone faking the pics to stir things up.

2. Beheading of Nick Berg. I will not watch the video. Period. We knew the Iraqi's and the radical Muslims wouldn't play fair when Dubya decided to invade Iraq. The called Jihad, in which there are no civilians....any American is fair game. Killing in the name of their religeon is not only perfectly OK, it guarantees their place in Paradise, at least in their mind. Personally, I find that a pretty twisted and perverse view on religeon. But who am I to talk. I talk to trees and animals.

[verytiredmummy.livejournal.com]

Being a martyr (i.e. One who makes great sacrifices or suffers much in order to further a belief, cause, or principle) guarantees a place in paradise - killing is still a sin. This is always overlooked by the zealots and bully boys who wish to impose themselves and their will on the rest of the world. This is the same whether you are Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddist (YES Buddist - they have had some not very nice wars too), Atheist or even Communist or Animal rights supporter...

When people start killing in the name of the greater good, you just KNOW we are back at Animal Farm. The people of Iraq have spent so long in Animal Farm, a lot of them don't know what the outside is like. This is not really about God - this is as usual about power and who can hang on to it in post Saddam Iraq.

Any truly religious (Islamic) zealots would do well to be reminded of the example set by Salah ad-Din (an Iraqi-Kurd) who beat King Richard's Christian Crusaders - but let them retreat instead of slaughtering them like he could of.

[redcub.livejournal.com]

Someone up on the hill was amazed that the abuse was generating so much controversy, and attempted to point out that these people imprisoned had been insurgents who had surrendered, terrorists who had been captured, people who "very likely" had American blood on their hands, saying that their crimes should be taken into account when discussing whether or not they deserved the right to cry foul play.

The fact is, we treat "common" mass-murderers with more respect here in America, where freedom and democracy is supposed to be oozing out like tap water every where you turn, and those criminals don't have any of the excuses an Iraqi isurgent might give for committing violent acts.

The nations of the world long ago agreed that mis-treatment of prisoners was a heinious crime, given the helplessness of the victim at the time. We've known this since World War I, and reaffirmed it in WWII.

Just drives you nuts, doesn't it?