The Most Important Considerations Re The Torture Pics

Parading around naked is the worst possible form of humiliation for Muslims.

That means the U.S. now has ZERO credibility in Muslim nations.

The only way to even start thinking about beginning to repair the damage is to dump the whole Bush administration.

But most of you already knew that.

That is the ONLY way out of this mess... Our soldiers are now in danger all over the middle east and Bush is totally incapable of fixing his image. There is no turning this around and soon the public will resign themselves to this fact...Bush is sunk and he has no one to blame but himself.

what is the worst for us?

Subject: The Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, America’s shame

America remembers Pfc. Jessica Lynch, and the worries we all had about her being tortured. Can you imagine how you would have felt if the Iraqis had published nude photos of Pfc. Lynch being forced to masturbate and having oral and anal sex with other prisoners? Add to that mental thought a smiling Baghdad Bob standing next to Jessica giving a thumbs-up signal: just as our female soldier did in the Abu Ghraib photos. I know the outrage I would have felt.

The damage to U.S. world power and credibility is so tremendous that the fallout will be felt for a decade. I cringe at the retaliatory attacks that are sure to come, from our allies and trading partners.

Our U.S. Armed Forces have taken a terrible blow. The world now sees our military as an aggressor force, out to torture others to submit and kneel before President Bush. Gone is yesterday’s grand view of our U.S. sons and daughters protecting freedom. The entire planet now paints our soldiers with a broad brush as sexual deviants hell-bent on rape and torture. U.S. soldiers held as POWs in this or any future conflict will now face a high probability of the same or worse treatment, especially captured U.S. female soldiers.

Lady Liberty has tears rolling down her majestic face. The people of America are shamed. We have been hurt more than any terrorist or traitor could have ever hoped to accomplish.

I stayed up late every night watching for news during the 2003 Iraq invasion. My son was in Task Force 2-69 Armor, Third Infantry: the Army’s Tip-of-the-Spear fighting to Baghdad. He was awarded the ARCOM for Valor. Those brave men of TF 2-69 won the war and returned home to a heroes welcome.

The heroes returning home today will not witness the same gratitude of our nation, much less any other nation; what was won has been lost. The Abu Ghraib shame is like a dark shadow that now blankets us all.

We need to react swiftly, like the Board of Directors of a large corporation would. Turn the perpetrators over for imprisonment immediately. Remove and replace the CEO. Remove and replace the highest level Executive Staff responsible for oversight, and remove and replace the lower level management responsible for oversight. Fully support a legal investigation of the entire management chain. Put in place proper planning and strict new policies and procedures to prevent this from ever happening again. Plan on waiting years before the company becomes profitable again.

This Abenaki Native American has tears of shame on his face.

Sincerely,


StrongDemo

http://www.politicalhardball.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=100&topic_id=85349&mesg_id=85349&page=

An excellent post. Guess who's going to take the brunt of this? Our armed forces. The army. I've already read that they've pointed fingers uphill, at guess who? Contractors. Contractors who will vanish like a mirage in the desert. People who are unaccountable for their actions. People who make $100,000 per year "convincing" people to talk.

Meanwhile, our soldiers are getting the shit end of the stick. We need to stick up for them.

Seems odd that the violence in Iraq has diminished. Rather than zero credibility, the photos of the torture may have in a perverse way have struck fear into the hearts of many that might have taken up arms. The fanatics at their core believe women to be inferior. To see an American woman, and a small one at that, holding a writhing Iraqi on a leash is a nightmare come true. You can't fight the bogeyman when he's in your mind. If it's there in a photo, it's much worse. The ace of spades was used similarly in Vietnam.

For the Iraqis who wish to believe the worse about Americans that has to be demoralizing especially since EVERYTHING is Allah's will. While it's a contrarian viewpoint, the torture photos may mark the beginning of the end for organized Iraqi resistance. If I believed in conspiracy theories, I'd think the whole thing was planned by Bush.

Don't forget that.

Dream on, tinkerbell.

These are the same folks who believe they're going to greeted by 72 virgins after death. To you and I those photos are an outrage. To an impressionable young Iraqi they are something that goes to the core of his being. It's proof positive that the bogeyman who's supposedly fictional and the stuff of nightmares only, is real.

The issue is not surrender. For many it's opportunistic. They could just as easily stay home than run the streets. Sadr is probably not real happy now.

MSNBC is reporting that we're about to be hit with photographs showing U.S. forces having sex with a female Iraqi prisoner; photographs of a prisoner beaten nearly to death; photographs of soldiers acting "inappropriately" with a corpse; and, worse still, a video tape showing Iraqi guards raping young boys. The footage of the Iraqi guards was shot by our troops, who could have put a stop to it, but instead choose to video tape the rapes. Nice, eh?

alleged camcorder film of US troops raping a 12-year old girl. According to sources, US forces picked both brother and sister in Baghdad and threw the boy in a cell where he could hear his sister's screams.

And this is captured on film, including sound.

When this one comes out, it will be all over for the Bush Administration. If there's one thing the Americans won't stand for it's this kind of thing.

Count on it.