The girl from a trailer park who embarrassed the world's superpower

Sunday Times ^ | Sunday 09 May 2004 | Sunday Times Foreign Desk

[Immanuel]

http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/2004/05/09/news/world/world02.asp

As the human face of a deepening scandal involving the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by members of both the US and British armed forces, England, a former US prisons officer whose job in Iraq was to assign prisoners to cells, is the only soldier to be sent home.

She has been reassigned to Fort Ashby, her home town in West Virginia, where she used to live in a trailer park.

Given her humble roots, it's not surprising that many observers think of her as a backwoods bitch of war.

But some of the locals in Fort Ashby think England is a hero. Her photograph is displayed along with those of other soldiers from the area who took part in the US-led invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. A few of them died in action there.

At a dingy Fort Ashby saloon, the consensus was that England, the daughter of a railway worker, did nothing wrong. As one regular, Colleen Kesner, told reporters, "A lot of people here think they ought to just blow up the whole of Iraq. To the country boys here, if you're a different nationality, a different race, you're sub-human. That's the way girls like Lynndie are raised.

"Tormenting Iraqis, in her mind, would be no different from shooting a turkey. Every season here you're hunting something. Over there, they're hunting Iraqis."

According to some reports there is open talk of an active Ku Klux Klan presence in the town, an isolated Appalachian mountain community about 260km west of Washington.

Its population is mostly poor, barely educated and white. Most of the townsfolk don't understand the issues in Iraq and why the pictures of members of the 372nd Military Police Company abusing prisoners has caused a furore.

[Immanuel]

I'm sorry for what she's put through, as a pawn in this game; but she wouldn't experience this without mugging for the camera.

[MonroeDNA]

I want to marry her.

[AngieGOP]

She's a pawn? Miss England looks like she's have a great old time. If I were Jessica Lynch, I would spit in her eye.

[nuconvert]

"Tormenting Iraqis, in her mind, would be no different from shooting a turkey. Every season here you're hunting something. Over there, they're hunting Iraqis."

WTF???
Well, I guess THAT Answers a LOT!

[latrans]

My final comment on this topic would be that "It's all relative in W Va".

[Thumper1960]

Did Carville write this?

[TRY ONE]

Maybe she was just trying to find the next John Dillinger for Playgirl Mag!

[ladylib]

She's already taken, lucky girl, by her equally stupid and criminal boyfriend.

[dts32041]

What a racist piece of work this writing is, I expect the the Grand Kleagon, byrd to come stepping out of the pages at any time.

[nuconvert]

"To the country boys here, if you're a different nationality, a different race, you're sub-human. That's the way girls like Lynndie are raised."

And these people AREN'T screened-OUT of the military??

Holy Moly !......Yeah, that's the kind of person I want representing the U.S.. SHEESH!!

[Mr. Mojo]

Abu Gharib, other parts of the picture. (An Interview with an Iraqi citizen)

[FITZ]

She's making fun of him --- but I don't see any blood --- no marks of physical injury. If this is what we're calling torture now, I think we've become very soft as a people.

[Condor51]

Yes but, regardless of whether what she did was wrong or not, where's the outrage at all this labeling and inference of her as 'ignorant poor white trash', 'trailer park trash' and the references to the KKK's presence in her hometown, etc, etc.

Where's N.O.W.? Where's the ACLU?
I mean, who's being humiliated now?

If I was her I'd find a scum-bag lawyer and sue every publication that have used those terms for libel and slander.

I apologize for the redundant phrase of 'scum-bag lawyer'.

[lentulusgracchus]

If I were Jessica Lynch, I would spit in her eye.

Something tells me that if you were Jessica Lynch, that little old trailer-trash girl would mop the place up with you.

I think she's probably tough as a fistful of nails, and I think her job consisted in large part of showing those Iraqi jihadi prisoners that she was tougher and meaner than they were. I don't know that, but I think that's what the story is going to turn out to be.

[AngieGOP]

For my part she could have bitten his wing wang off. She still made our people look bad. She and her friends gave the Dems/Libs/Kerry enough ammo to minimize the memory of all those people who died in recent months. Whoever took the photos and whoever released them to the press should be bitch slapped as well.

[AngieGOP]

Showing Iraqi's that she was tougher than them is all well and good. Smiling like a village idiot while doing so gives John Kerry and the liberal press all the ammo they need to minimize the good work done by all the other soliders there.

[cyborg]

I think there's an unnatural obsession with her being from a trailer park.

[JOE6PAK]

She's already taken...and 4 MONTHS PREGNANT!

[Gunrunner2]

yeah. . .back in the day, when I went to USAF survival/POW training, first thing "they" did was put a bag on your head, strip you naked, pour cold water over you and then laugh as "Mr. Happy" shriveled. Wait. . .yes. . .I feel it now. . .post-traumatic stress from my POW training. . .that's it. . .I demand compensation for my embarrassment.

[Spotsy]

I'm sorry for what she's put through, as a pawn in this game

Conservatives believe individuals are responsible for their own actions.

In the words of President Bush:

We stand for a culture of responsibility in America.
We're changing the culture of America from one that said,
"if it feels good, do it," and
"if you've got a problem, blame someone else,"
to a culture in which each of us understands
we're responsible for the decisions we make.