Posted on 05/07/2004 7:59:33 AM PDT by van_erwin
Unlucky Lynndie England. She is the girl in the photo aiming at the genitalia of naked inmates at Abu Ghraib prison.
A New York Times reporter ain't gonna write her autobiography. The state Democratic Party ain't gonna supply her with a lawyer named Goodwin. "People" magazine ain't gonna take her to White House Correspondents dinner.
Unlucky Lynndie is the anti-Jessica Lynch.
The latter is blonde, the former brunette. The latter wants to be a teacher, the former plucked chickens. The latter joined the Army to get a job, the former really wanted to be a soldier.
Look, I know what sort of column I am supposed to write. I am supposed to denounce Unlucky Lynndie.
Certainly, I do not like what I see in the photos.
It is as if the late Robert Mapplethorpe got another government grant, this time to visit Iraq.
But just as I could not bring myself to write a Jessica Lynch column a year ago, I cannot bring myself to denounce Unlucky Lynndie.
It is not a matter of not wanting to pile on. I can be as impolite as the next guy.
No, it is a matter of the truth. Just as tall tales of Jessica Lynch vaporized a year ago in the light of day, this story may have holes in it.
Lynch did not go down in a blaze of glory. Lynch did not have body parts amputated.
I am sure that Unlucky Lynndie and her fellow soldiers in the 372nd Military Police Company will be duly punished for their actions.
But let us get real about what those actions are. What we know today does not support the allegations by the Gazette of torture.
Sorry. Humiliation is not torture. Sleep deprivation is not torture. Lying to inmates is not torture.
Consider the words of "the man in the hood" as the (London) Independent described Hayder Sabbar Abd:
"Americans did not mistreat me in general. But these people must be tried.
"I can't tell you my feelings. The Americans got rid of Saddam Hussein. They told us about democracy and freedom. We are happy about that.
"Then (the soldiers) did this to the seven of us. I am asking, ‘Is that democracy, is that freedom'?"
The reports on Abu Ghraib prison began with Seymour Hersh, who copped a Pulitzer Prize for unveiling a real atrocity, My Lai in Vietnam. Since then Hersh has become a boy crying wolf about the American military.
Compared to the massacre at My Lai, this at its worse is schoolyard bullying.
One thing is clear: Intelligence officers were trying to extract information from these inmates.
This leads me to conclude that these inmates were not your average Iraqis. They were the bad boys.
I wonder how many of them tortured, raped and killed their countrymen at that very same Abu Ghraib prison.
As far as I know, no limbs were amputated to make the disgusting pictures we now see.
And I wonder just what sort of information was extracted from these inmates. I wonder what Sept. 11th was prevented because a few intelligence officers got the job done at Abu Ghraib.
How easy it is to dismiss Unlucky Lynndie.
The headline in the (London) Evening Standard said, "Trailer park girl turns into torturer."
Having spent time in London and six years living in trailer parks, I think an apology is due.
Just as inmates have their rights, so do corrections officers. I want to hear Unlucky Lynndie's side of the story before joining the parade.
Surber may be reached by e-mail at donsurber@dailymail.com.
Me too.
I don't. I hope to never see her again. She and her buddies, and whoever else was in on it, have done us a great dis-service with their bizarre games.
Oh good. Your standards are now low enough that being 'not worse then them' is good enough?
Support of the mission in Iraq means nothing unless we only support the actions that further that mission, and abhor behavior like this from the few. I respect the soldiers we have over there enough to be sorry this crap has drowned out their good efforts. And I respect them enough to draw a distinction between them and these twits.
Personally I would be looking for the Idiot/Idiots that leaked the pictures to begin with. And if anything they did got any information out of these "Alleged"(gotta appease the ^%^&##& Lawyers), that might have prevented another 9/11 type event, well then thats another story isn't it?
Regrettably, the report cannot address the fact that just having women in uniform and in positions of authority over men is a humiliation to Arab men.
Agreed. And furher endangering Americans and others who are still being held hostage.
These prisoners were humiliated, and they suffered, and they were put through the wringer. I agree. These prisoners were also picked up because OUR TROOPS are being attacked by terrorists.
They are sending 13 year old children to die as suicide bombers, hiding in mosques, killing and mutilating civilians because the soldiers are too hard to fight. If our soldiers have to use extreme methods to find out where the next terrorist attack is going to be, or who is behind it, then GOD BLESS them.
The only regret I have is in how our PR is being handled. I agree that our troops are endangered now because the Arab press is using this to fan the flames of hatred. We could be playing the propagandists just like Al Jazeera, God knows there's plenty of photos we could show. The fact is, they use rape, mutilation, amputation and mass executions. We scare and embarass them. It ain't the same thing.
We are at war with them.
We are not them.
We don't treat prisoners this way, and we would be mortified if those prisoners were our own. What is shown there is not the way civilized people behave.
Furthermore, this is WAR. War isn't pretty. War isn't nice. War isn't a neighborhood, child's soccer game.
War is deadly. People die. And, the object is to have less of your own people die than the enemy's. In order to have that happen, you have to know things about your enemy. That knowledge saves your soldier's lives.
Frankly, one gets that information however one can.
I dare say purely political reasons were involved. The person/persons who leaked these photos did more harm to this country then the people who did the acts themselves. Although I guess one good unintended consequence is coming out of this.
Everyone I have spoken to so far, even a few Dems, are sick and tired of this story and are starting to get more then a little pissed of at the folks who continuously bring it up. They are starting to realize that these acts do not even come close to the barbaric acts being committed against Americans and others over there and in the rest of the world.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.