Abuse, torture, who cares when we've got the messenger to blame. But I take that back, the Iraqis deserved it. Why? Why not, someone deserves it.

Alan, you ignore the real message.

The reality is, a few soldiers acted like real pigs. Not anywhere near as miserably as the standard, day to day member of the enemy, but bad.

The message is: for the actions of a few, damn them all.

That is, frankly, a piss poor message to apply to anyone. That is the exact same message you hear from those who would damn every Muslim, everywhere, because of Islamic terrorism.

The reality is that overall conduct of the US armed forces has been by any real historical comparison, above reproach, and that includes the conduct of the WWII army of the "Greatest Generation". The reality is that if you were to be taken captive by any major fighting force in the history of warfare since the dawn of recorded history, and somehow had your choice of which one, you and any thinking person would choose "United States military please, late twentieth century and after". The message, that this is somehow a representation and not a fluke, is nothing but propaganda and the messenger is therefore deserving of any verbal rebuke.

Remember, the WORST you ever see out of the United States beats the STANDARD set by the enemy- a fact that the Reality Based Community should appreciate, because it is Reality.

Ben

Alan, I said "prolonged exposure," not just "exposure." Certainly the abuse should have been reported in the MSM. But since it was already under investigation and gave fuel to our enemies, why flog it throughout the MSM day after day, week after week? Especially since the MSM has not shown much interest in describing Saddam's treatment of Iraqis, which were real torture.

We have been loosening the ties that bound us to the high road and finding excuse after excuse to justify it. Then we blame the messenger who tells us something is rotten, as if rotten is now just fine, especially with 'those' people. That is a recipe that will bite us in the rear.

Alan nails it.

since it was already under investigation and gave fuel to our enemies, why flog it throughout the MSM day after day, week after week?

Spoken like a true apologist.