Winning The Hearts and Minds of Arabs - Blog Day Afternoon Posted by Jeff (Sunday May 02 2004 @ 11:17AM EDT)

Last week, 60 Minutes II aired a story which raised allegations of Iraqi prisoner abuse by American soldiers. According to the CBS news program, American soldiers photographed prisoners in comprimising positions. One female soldier, it is alleged, took photographs of an interpreter as he raped a young prisoner. In their defense, several American soldiers claimed that they did not recieve in-depth training on the Geneva Conventions. While holiday celebrations are permitted in prisoner of war camps, all Halloween costumes must be deemed safe by at least one of several consumer protection organizations. As of last October, Funkman's Heh--What Do I Care If You Wear That? Costume Safety Organization was not a certified consumer watchdog. Sniffing Iraqi soldier ass is a popular pastime in some quarters, but article four, section two, paragraph three of the Geneva Convention explicitly condemns stacking them in a pyramid for a better whiff. "Listen," one American soldier was quoted to say, "if we had known the Geneva Convention forbade us from stripping prisoners and forcing them to wipe their naked asses on other prisoners, then we absolutely wouldn't have done that. Nobody told us it was unacceptable." While belittling penis size is an effective method to extract information, you have to feel at least some sympathy for the Iraqis. A cold, dank prison is not condusive to putting your best foot forward if you know what I mean... For another perspective, here are some pictures taken by one soldier during the Iraqi conflict.

< George W. Bush | Science Schmience >

By Funkman (Monday May 03 2004 @ 08:04AM EDT)

10% of the "troops" in Iraq are contractors. Based on the nice things contractors did in Bosnia - prepare to be ultra shocked in the coming months by bad contractor behavior. (And lack of accountability)

[ reply | parent ]

By Anonymous (Monday May 03 2004 @ 02:01PM EDT)

and the Iraqies followed the geneva convention when they mutalated, burnt and drug the four americans through the streets? Yes humiliation IS a proper form of interigation. You are showing the wrong pictures. how about these http://www.kdp.pp.se/chemical.html http://www.homestead.com/prosites-prs/pictures033104.html http://www.omarmasry.net/pictures.htm http://www.drudgereport.com/md323.htm

[ reply | parent ]

By The Pragmatist (Monday May 03 2004 @ 02:19PM EDT) If we had no higher aspiration than to be as good as Saddam Hussein and no better, you would have a point. The four Americans were private military contractors, and as such are not signatories to the Geneva Convention, therefore they had no such protection. This is one of the many problems related to using them instead of American or allied troops. [ reply | parent ]

By The Pragmatist (Monday May 03 2004 @ 02:24PM EDT)

I was reading Saturday's NY Times coverage of the prison abuse story when it all came clear to me and I laughed aloud. Evidently, one of the police units is from Cumberland Maryland. Having met a few folks from thereabouts, all I could do was shake my head and wonder, "what were they thinking..."

[ reply | parent ]

By Will is Right (Monday May 03 2004 @ 07:05PM EDT)

You're absolutely right Jeff. These 14 individuals are indicative of the entire American force stationed within Iraq. I'd thought slightly more of you than that.

[ reply | parent ]

By Jeff (Monday May 03 2004 @ 09:14PM EDT) Are you reading the early edition? Because there I wrote, "these obscene acts are indicative of the entire American force stationed in Iraq." The early edition is circulated exclusively to Will-Is-Right's computer. Everybody else got the copy above. [ reply | parent ]

By The Pragmatist (Monday May 03 2004 @ 10:19PM EDT) These specific acts have got to run at least a few grades up the chain-of-command. Even in BushWorld, I believe the military still believes in accountability. This is certainly indicative of is an administration willing to experiment with American success and security by having too few troops in theatre and becoming overly reliant on private contractors. That was a choice they made to prove their theories of military restructuring. [ reply | parent ]

By Jeff (Tuesday May 04 2004 @ 09:06AM EDT)

Hannity and colmes got to the bottom of this situation. The POWs were merely "hazed." Former U.S. Army sergeant Tony Robinson, explains: ROBINSON: Well, one thing that needs to be understood, is that there's also an impact on the torturer. ... Now, I use the word torture, but that's not what's happening in these pictures. HANNITY: What is it? ROBINSON: I've seen -- I've seen worse than this at -- frat hazing is worse than this. HANNITY: So in other words, this is not a big deal? What should the punishment be if these guys in fact are found guilty of whatever is going on over there, whatever is going on? ROBINSON: Well, it's not torture. If it was, they'd be accused of torture. They're accused of maltreatment. I'm not making excuses for them.

[ reply | parent ]

By a humanbeing (Wednesday September 07 2005 @ 05:29PM EDT) it is discusting army of usa [ reply | parent ]

By Hy-Brasil (Thursday August 05 2004 @ 09:02PM EDT)

So does that mean theres a Keggar waiting for the POW's at the end of the rainbow?

[ reply | parent ]

By Tr3Mbl3r (Tuesday July 03 2007 @ 02:44AM EDT)

these sand monkeys torchure and kill our soldiers every chance they get...you really think this is abuse compared to waht they do there? if i was a soldier i would much rather this happen to me then get beat and my head cut off and put on top of my dead lifeless body and video taped then trown out the window into a pile of rot.

[ reply | parent ]

By Jeff (Tuesday July 03 2007 @ 08:19AM EDT) It's absolutely abuse. In fact, some of the techniques used at Abu Ghraib were classified war crimes by the United States. In 1947, the United States sentenced Yukio Asano to 15 years hard labor. His crime? Waterboarding. I understand "sand monkeys" will "torchure" [sic] their enemies but I'm concerned by your comparison of us to them. Their strategic mission is to create an Islamic caliphate. *OUR* mission is to spread democracy and rule of law. Even if you're a heartless fan of torture, it is necessary to apply the appropriate tactics for strategic success. [ reply | parent ]

Post a Comment

Name: Email: URL   Remember my information (uses cookies)   I would rather be anonymous Comment: * HTML tags are allowed. * Your email will not be made public. * LINK SPAM WILL BE DELETED!