[genefromjersey]

Sorry,folks,but the shenanigans pulled at Abu Ghrai were "beyond the beyond"... for American troops .

The troops doing this crap knew they were way over the line,but they gloried in it-and the chain of command looked thether way.

I could wish this particular genie had never gotten out of the lamp-but it did,and it is likely to cause the deaths of a LOT of good troops in the not-too-distant future.

The Ba'athist fedayeen,the Ansar al-Islam crew,and the Iranian Republican Guardsmen already in the country have been trying to light the fires of a wide-spread guerrilla war. We've handed them what amounts to gasoline truck and a blowtorch: photographic proof,media saturation,and highly publicized legislative furore.I read today we are going to make things even worse by conducting public court martials.

There is no way this will end well,and, if President Bush has the brains God gave a pissant,he will tell the Republican National Convention to withdraw his name from candidacy,because the "buck" does stop there - whether he knew about the situation or not.

[DHerion]

Tell your doctor to lower your medication.

How is Bush not accepting the nomination going to do anything but make a tough situation tougher? Are these thugs going to give up if Bush steps down? I can see the TV interview now with an Ansar al-Islam.

"Bush resigned. Allah be praised. Here is my weapon. I can go back to goat herding now."

[MEG33]

Good grief. I deplore the acts,want them punished and the people who ran a sloppy command given career ending chastisements.

You have lost perspective, and perhaps need to to read the report, when the investigation started and steps already taken before the furor. It was announced in January by Cent Com. This was not widespread.

We've had worse scandals in US prisons.