The small-town girl who ended up on every channel (Lynndie England – Leash Girl)

The Baltimore Sun via SMH ^ | May 7, 2004 | John Woestendiek in Fort Ashby, West Virginia

[dead]

Lynndie England loved a good storm. During tornado warnings her mother would have to drag her back inside the house. Her teachers say she wanted a career as a storm-chaser.

Now, the perfect storm has found her.

From hometown hero to the reviled woman holding the leash . . . US Reserve
soldier Lynndie England with an Iraqi prisoner in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.
Photo: The Washington Post

The petite 21-year-old army reservist from the quiet crossroads town of Fort Ashby in West Virginia is the most visible character in the controversy over the abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison. She is the thumbs-up girl, the pixie-ish, T-shirted soldier, smiling, pointing and posing for the camera with naked and humiliated inmates.

Soon after the release of the photographs, Terrie England was on the telephone with her daughter while watching television.

Full story ...

[evets]

Hi mom.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

American soldiers enter the Baghdad Art Museum
to dismantle the latest Mapplethorpe exhibit.

[ezo4]

I dont care about this stuff when these people kill, mame, burn and then hang from a bridge our guys. This is nothing and I could give a rats a$$

[RedBloodedAmerican]

The French are just jealous.

[cherry]

we don't need to torture anybody.....capturing them and showing them what civilization is like would be enough propaganda for a lifetime....

however, I do agree with what I percieve as your sense of outrage over the relative unimportance of this compared to what they are doing to our guys:.......ambushing them in the most cowardly way, murdering them, brutalizing their bodies and in some cases, dragging them thru the streets.....

[sheik yerbouty]

ROFL!

[AQGeiger]

Although they would certainly find it humiliating, I honestly don't think it would help in the effort to obtain useful information from detainees. The thugs look at women with too much derision to be intimidated by them, and the knee-jerk reaction would make them too indignant to talk. It's only my opinion, but I personally think they need a bunch of very large, very strong, and very male guards and interrogators in order to break them down by showing the inmates that they don't live up to the fierce manly vision they hold of themselves.

[FReepaholic]

>>...but something about that picture is just funny...<<

Her hair looks weird.

[kinghorse]

Had to chuckle at the keywords. I think you left one out. WEST VIRGINIA. That is all.

[GrandEagle]

Once upon a time, such things didn't have to be explained to people.
I agree 100%! I just finished responding to another post and the whole time I was typing I felt like "If this needs to be explained, then he wouldn't understand anyway".

[Moose4]

Your tagline has given me the first laugh I've had regarding this whole screwed-up situation. Brilliant!

}:-)4

[kinghorse]

A bad thing with the all volunteer/reserve heavy force is you get a disporportionate percentage of rednecks in the armed forces. There I said it.

[u-89]

here's the rest of that photo in post #61

[JCEccles]

There are very few posts contending such abuse is appropriate. I certainly disagree with those who contend that it is.

Far more posts are being improperly chracterized as approving of the abuse when they clearly disapprove of the abuse. These posters apparently don't satisfy the "purer than thou" critics who for some reason seem incapable of noting two important facts: first, the abuse was uncovered and stopped by the US itself without being prompted by public outrage; second, the offenders are being appropriately sanctioned and prosecuted.

Yes, the system is working. And it is working in a rational, well-ordered way.

Good job, America.

[TXBSAFH]

These morons forgot the first rule of prison guards. No weapons, no drugs, no contraband, and NO CAMERAS!!!

[adam_az]

[mywholebodyisaweapon]

Not a silly approach, in fact, the only one that will work.

Every Iraqi is potentially our enemy, and not because of our actions. Islam is evil, and it's time we admitted it. Dresden, Hiroshima, and other battles indicate that an evil enemy only understands annhiliation. We don't understand it, to our credit. But to win, we will have to understand it.

I do agree with you, however, in that we should carefully guard against enjoying it. If not, then we are indistinguishable from the enemy.

[Law is not justice but process]

I am very encouraged by the outrage our nation has shown over the actions of these out-of-control prison guards. This is a sense of outrage that was absent (or very limited) when Clinton was having sex with interns in the White House, when thugs were rioting after courts rendered decisions (take your choice, Rodney King, the Cincinnati police trial, OJ, any sports championship in the last decade), when network television was slowly losing any standard of decency throughout the 90's, etc..

This is not an isolated incident, as there seems to be a growing reaction to low standards: e.g. Janet Jackson's breast, Howard Stern, Martha Stewart, etc.. I believe we are seeing somewhat of a cultural backlash against the 1990's. I know this is probably unduly optimistic of me, but I have to have to be optimistic or I will become a complete nihilist.

I wish I could go farther and believe that those on the left truly have realized that the moral standards of this nation are disappearing, but a little voice keeps telling me that if Gore were president this Iraqi prison story would not be a front page news in the US.

[Not A Snowbird]

"She shouldn't have been processing prisoners in the first place," her father, Kenneth, said. "She was trained as an administrator, a paper-pusher.

"It's not in my job description?!"

That's not how the military works, friends. Regardless of your MOS you do whatever you're assigned to do.

[winodog]

I second that.