lack of "training" responsible for Abu Graihb (sp?)

Man, I am getting sick of this excuse. You don't need "training" and "education about the Geneva conventions" to know that it's goddam wrong to do hold snarling attack dogs on a naked prisoner or shove things up their ass. The higher-ups didn't fail because they didn't provide "training." They failed because they either allowed it to happen, encouraged it, or tacitly proposed it. Allowing them to get away with that argument basically diminishes their responsibility to a missing item on the syllabus. Ditto on the "they weren't doing jobs they were trained to do" argument. You don't need to take "Don't Build Naked Prisoner Pyramids 101" to know that it is inexusably wrong.

The fact that soldiers were overstretched number-wise and deployed waaaay overlong might explain some kind of contagious mental breakdown, but don't give me this lack of training stuff.

eileen from OH