Iraqi prisoner abuse

[matadorpoeta]

why does everyone keep discussing the abuse and ignoring the MURDERS?

the red cross reported that 7 iraqi detainees were murdered by americans who shot them from a watch tower like they were taking shooting practice. (reminds me of a scene from schindler's list.)

i heard this on the news yesterday but they spent 20 minutes talking about the abuses and 2 seconds on the murders as if they were an afterthought. before this the army reported that they investigating 10 cases of possible murders and that 2 had already been confirmed as such.

am i the only one who thinks murder is more cause for alarm than abuse? am i not getting something?

 

[esquire.]

O'Reily was saying that he would have never shown the photos like CBS, because they would be too inflamatory and serve as propaganda to America's enemies.

 

[FCS]

O'Reily was saying that he would have never shown the photos like CBS, because they would be too inflamatory and serve as propaganda to America's enemies.

Wow, he didn't know there is something called 'freedom of speech' in America?

 

[matadorpoeta]

why does everyone keep discussing the abuse and ignoring the MURDERS?

the red cross reported that 7 iraqi detainees were murdered by americans who shot them from a watch tower like they were taking shooting practice. (reminds me of a scene from schindler's list.)

i heard this on the news yesterday but they spent 20 minutes talking about the abuses and 2 seconds on the murders as if they were an afterthought. before this the army reported that they investigating 10 cases of possible murders and that 2 had already been confirmed as such.

am i the only one who thinks murder is more cause for alarm than abuse? am i not getting something?

i'm just bumping this up because i'm surprised that no one had an opinion on my comments.

my friends think the government is conspiring with the press to highlight the abuses and therefore downplay the murders. i think that would be hard to pull off considering our government would have liitle such influence on the overseas media.

 

[FCS]

Haven't heard much about the murder case so can't really comment on it. However I just read this after reading the beheading news of an American civilian and was equally disgusted on the two events. On a brighter note: "Senator John McCain got up and left the room while his fellow Republican was speaking. Mr. McCain, who was captured and tortured during the Vietnam War, told reporters that he rejected Mr. Inhofe's position." http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet....nt A U.S. senator lashed out Tuesday at the furor caused by photos showing the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of U.S. guards. Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, a Republican, said that he was sick of complaints about the treatment of prisoners that he characterized as "terrorists" and "murderers." Ignoring a Red Cross report that said that up to 90 per cent of the prisoners held at Abu Ghraib prison had been rounded up by mistake, Mr. Inhofe suggested that no one should feel sorry for detainees who had been photographed in humiliating and degrading positions. "You know they're not there for traffic violations," he told a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "If they're in cellblock 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners, they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands, and here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals." Mr. Inhofe's position is sharply different from the repeated public statements emanating from the most senior levels of the U.S. government. President George W. Bush went on Arabic-language television to express U.S. outrage and Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld took "full responsibility" for troop misconduct. The House of Representatives passed a resolution last Thursday deploring the mistreatment or prisoners and, on Monday, the Senate voted 92-0 for the bipartisan resolution condemning the abuses at Abu Ghraib. It was not clear whether Mr. Inhofe had voted. A poll released Monday indicated that nearly three-quarters of Americans considered the treatment of Iraqi prisoners shown in the photographs to be unjustified under any circumstances. Mr. Inhofe's comments came during a committee appearance by U.S. Army Major-General Antonio Taguba, whose report detailed abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. During questioning of the general, Mr. Inhofe prefaced his query with a lengthy statement denouncing the outrage spawned by the photos. "I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment," he said. "I am also outraged that we have so many humanitarian do-gooders right now crawling all over these prisons looking for human-rights violations while our troops, our heroes, are fighting and dying." Senator John McCain got up and left the room while his fellow Republican was speaking. Mr. McCain, who was captured and tortured during the Vietnam War, told reporters that he rejected Mr. Inhofe's position.

 

[j]

Sounds like Mr. Inhofe needs a severe and protracted beating.

 

[vero_group]

Wow. Good for Mr. McCain.

I am personally outraged by the photos. But, I also think we Americans -- through our government we freely elect -- have done these kinds of activities for decades through the interegation and "intelligence gathering" that the CIA, NSA, FBI, and other clandestine organizations do for us as a matter of national security. If they didn't do the job we pay them to do, we would have been innihilated years ago.

I'm not condoning these types of activities, but in reality it's an ugly world out there. People have wanted to kill us for decades. There are PLENTY of things these clandestine organizations have done with our tax dollars that we don't know about and we probably would prefer that it remain that way. We pay the spymasters our tax dollars so that we don't have to worry about those ugly kinds of things. It's just now, someone was dumb enough to have untrained military personnel (i.e., not military intelligence personnel sworn to secrecy) conduct and photograph the activities. The photography was part of the humiliation process so that the captives would talk and spill intelligence; but you know, they could have used REAL intelligence officers who would've known better than to send the pictures around to their friends to show them how cool they are. So, our leaders had untrained and obviously not smart people doing the spymaster's job. In my book, this is yet another intelligence snafu by these clandestine organizations that have, since 9/11, proved that they are not very capable at their Top Secret jobs. Heads should roll. If Mr. Bush won't make it happen, then perhaps he should be looking for a new job come Fall.

 

[LA Guy]

Good for McCain.

Vero, I think that there is a decision that this country does not wish to make The question America must ask is whether its life or its soul is more at stake.(and I am not a religious man.) If America wishes to survive at all costs, then it must pursue a sorched earth policy as all empires before it have. If America wants to keep its soul, it must be prepared to sacrifice its sons and daughters for peace - and it is unclear how many and for how long this must go on, or whether America has the endurance to survive the anger its enemies.

 

[ken]

The difference between killing a prisoner and killing an enemy on the battlefield is minimal. A life is a life.

There won't be anymore conventional battlefields. We proved such an effort against the US is futile during the Gulf War. The battlefields of the future are anywhere the enemy can be killed. Such as two giant commercial skyscrapers. Or a prison where the enemy is housed. Should we fight fire w/fire? Well, we shouldn't be playing with fire in the first place. But sometimes your buddies will be too drunk to put their cigarettes out before they throw them on your dry lawn.