Simulated Prison in '71 Showed a Fine Line Between `Normal' and `Monster'

NY Times ^ | May 6, 2004 | JOHN SCHWARTZ

[neverdem]

PING

[Travis McGee]

Great post, spot on, entirely apropos.

[antaresequity]

Wow...what a great post. Ever since 9-11 I too have changed my mind about torture. Who here wouldn't relish the idea of slowly torturing Osama Bin Laden...or approve of a public execution as excellent theatre?

In a way, the whole middle east has desensatized the world, along with some help via sattelite and the internet. The killing of a mother and her four children barely raise an eyebrow...

The real tragedy is not the sub human creatures that were humiliated, but the desensatizing foisted upon us by the Middle Eastern Barbarians.

[Cap Huff]

Lord of the Flies

[Diddle E. Squat]

Which, if you think about it, can explain why ordinary people can become virtual bloodthirsty backstabbing agents of sedition in the Democrat party and media.

Some may think I'm trying to be humorous, but I'm completely serious. It is just a different shade of the same pathology. Little different from the screaming knee-jerk 'nuke Mecca' types that invariably post here.

Which is why a moral compass and societal rules are always needed. The whole 60's worship of 'pushing the limits, breaking the rules, shock culture' is simply playing itself out. Densisitization does occur, whether we choose to admit it or not.

[GottaLuvAkitas1]

Great post!

Bump.

[Travis McGee]

bttt

[Diddle E. Squat]

FYI

[Caesar Soze]

Wow...what a great post. Ever since 9-11 I too have changed my mind about torture. Who here wouldn't relish the idea of slowly torturing Osama Bin Laden...or approve of a public execution as excellent theatre?

(raises hand)

The very thoughts are abhorrent.

[antaresequity]

The very thoughts are abhorrent.

Given enought time, you too would change.

An interesting experiment would be to let the 9-11 widows guard Osama unsupervised for a week with nothing but spoons.

[McGavin999]

I read this report a couple of days ago. Have you read the raw data file? Very interesting, and shows the failure of command and the situation these guys were working in. It still does not excuse their behavior, but it explains a lot.

[Travis McGee]

Total failure in the command structure. The 'rats are going to demand hearings, and they'll be after CIA scalps.

The small fry will sing like canaries: "Agent Flagg told us to do this!!!!!"

The 'rats will pin this on the CIA as a way of pinning it on the Whitehouse. "What instructions was the CIA giving about 'softening up' prisonters for interrogation?"

This is going to get ugly.

[texasflower]

Interesting post. Thanks for the ping.

[McGavin999]

Might not, woman general, don't ask/don't tell. This could get ugly for the libs as well.

[texasflower]

Uh. Count me out on that.

[texasflower]

The "general" has a husband.

[ikka]

The NYT has to go back to a pop-psych test, never repeated or peer-reviewed, 33 years ago in order to slander our troops.

[Travis McGee]

It would if our RINOs weren't spineless cowards who never fight back with all the tools at their disposal. We both know the female soldier aspects will never be mentioned.

[NutCrackerBoy]

The NYT has to go back to a pop-psych test, never repeated or peer-reviewed, 33 years ago in order to slander our troops.

I have always been a bit dubious about that study. But the article seems in a way exculpatory. It says this sort of thing is inevitable unless the guards themselves are kept under tight control.

It is a pretty tall order, guarding thousands of Iraqi prisoners, most of whom tried to kill Americans with IEDs, and many succeeded. We are observing some breakdown in the ability to do that while maintaining a high level of professionalism. Human nature says if things slide, they are going to slide bigtime.