----- Original Message ----- From: "JDG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2004 6:02 PM Subject: <Insert Reasonable Subject Here> - Darn this is annoying.....
> track record, so I won't go as far as you suggest, but I can only hope that > at some point they will come to their senses - what with the President and > National Review showing the right way on this issue...... It looks as though the president will have to retreat a great deal on this issue before he can show the way. There is strong evidence that it wasn't just an perpetrated by a few. The pictures were being passed among the MPs. Its clear that the person who became disgusted and reported the abuse was not the first outsider to see it. Why were these pictures considered entertaining? It is also clear from the Army report that there were significant systematic problems. It was not, as the president said, just a few disgusting individuals. It was a total breakdown of the system the armed forces had in place to prevent this sort of thing. I can see the anger in the face of retired 4-star generals who talked about what happened. Its not just anger at the soldiers who did it, but anger with those who were making excuses for the system. As Gautam has pointed out, there is nothing shocking about humans abusing others, alas. There is nothing magical about Americans that makes us better. What we can do and have done is to institutionalize safeguards to minimize the chance of this happening. We also punish those who do it. We've been sucessful for years with this strategy. There are significant indications that rules instituted to prevent abuse were bent and broken in the name of results. It is clear that the command structure at the prison lent itself to abuse. One needs to ask why our armed services changed procedures and techniques that had worked so well for decades. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
