How many of us at DU are disgusted at how we treat POW's?

[icymist]

This entire last week has been the nightmare of nightmares. The United States not only tortures prisoners in George W. Bush's war, but, takes pictures of it as souvenirs! The American government controls the media in such a way as that the full impact of these atrocities are never exposed, as the rest of the world sees it, in the nightly news! The year 2004 has become the most shameful year this young Democratic republic has ever seen. For the second time in my life, I am ashamed to be an American (the first was when Vietnam was happening). I love this country and everything she stands for. Today, I pour sand over my head. We, as a people, have lost our humanity. I cry whenever I think about those images posted of American MP's making a mockery of war and of a whole people. These images we have seen throughout this last week have brought home the stupidity and naked reality of this war better than the photo's of the honored war dead. Please! You generals and politicians who have control over this. Stop dishonoring the name of our sacred dead with this shit!

Okay, I've had my rant. Now it's your turn.

[unblock]

1. one has to hope that these are the exceptions, not the rule

with prisoners in custody of many different units, not all will be exemplary. hopefully the military will do the right thing to police its own, and to improve training in this regard.

unfortunately, with the commander-in-chief overseeing the guantanamo lawless hellhole, it shouldn't be surprising if disrespect of the humanity of pows filters down to the rank-and-file....

[VolcanoJen]

5. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

The "this was an isolated incident, caused by a few rotten apple soldiers" excuse is the one being forced upon us by the media, and by the president. It is imperative that we stop this lie in its tracks.

From the New Yorker article, which is quite definitive:

As the international furor grew, senior military officers, and President Bush, insisted that the actions of a few did not reflect the conduct of the military as a whole. Taguba’s report, however, amounts to an unsparing study of collective wrongdoing and the failure of Army leadership at the highest levels. The picture he draws of Abu Ghraib is one in which Army regulations and the Geneva conventions were routinely violated, and in which much of the day-to-day management of the prisoners was abdicated to Army military-intelligence units and civilian contract employees. Interrogating prisoners and getting intelligence, including by intimidation and torture, was the priority.

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. ...and then there were the soldiers in Oil War I who took a crap in

a Mosque for no good reason. I think this kind of behaviour is far more rampant than the sheeple will be led to believe.

[Karenina]

15. IT IS RAMPANT.

Lookee here y'all. The U.S. has this volunteer army comprised of folks on the lower end of the pecking order, lots of whom believe dem nigras and chinks took dey place in college or wherever. Put 'em in da oven topped with the cheese of dehumanizing the "enemy." Turn up heat. Then IGNORE. When the ficken British High Command starts complaining about Ami racism... HOUSTON, I THINK WE HAVE A P-R-O-B-L-E-M!!! It's been so for over a year. Gott sei dank there's FINALLY a visual für die Sesame Street generation. :SIGH:

[Wetzelbill]

2. yeah, hear hear

The U.S. is supposed to be better than that. We're supposed to be better than our treatment of "enemy combatants" in Guantanomo. We are just supposed to be better. To hold ourselves to a higher moral standard. To be fair and just. I don't see that. And, it hurts.

I'm glad you wrote this and I respect you for pouring out your emotions.

[Delano]

3. Even I don't think that that is the norm.

Those incidents are disgusting and horrible, and do immense damage to our image as liberators (an image that never really stuck anyway).

However, I would imagine that most of the prisoners are treated better than that most of the time. But a few rotten apples spoils the bunch, as they say.

[VolcanoJen]

7. No, No, No, No, No.

Please see post #5. Stop the "rotten apple" lie in its tracks.

[7th_Sephiroth]

4. its about the way we treat OUR prisoners

we dont even care if prisoners get raped, infact, most people laugh at it

[Webster Green]

10. Hear! Hear!...

I've ranted here about that fact more than a few times.

Prison rape in the US is fodder for laughs on sit-coms.

WTF???????

[7th_Sephiroth]

11. it disturbs me that that kind of thinking has been produced

its that train of thought that has created these photos and atrocities, and it can be linked back to people's feelings on prison rape

[Snow]

6. A certain sense of irony here, when atrocities are more horrible

when they're individualized. When I read of the siege of Fallujah, people and families fleeing the city were permitted to leave unless they were male & over the age of 10.

In which case they were turned back.

To the tears of their mothers, sisters, wives.

Who often then turned back with them.

And the city was pounded the next day with gunships capable of covering a football field with bullets in a matter of seconds.

Why don't we just line them all up against the wall and shoot them?
Or do we wish to give them a bit of a sporting chance with our selective weapons?

[Deja Q]

8. I'm diagusted with the world.

But disgusted with * the most for being just as much as a childish savage terrorist as those he claims to be fighting, for the sake of freedopm and every other key word he chooses to shovel out. x(

[freeforall]

12. Absolutely disgusted!

And sometimes Americans wonder why the rest of the world has becoome wary of the US. (I realize that soldiers from other countries commit war crimes as well).

The US is out of control. Get * out.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

13. Not 'we.' Words matter. We have nothing to do with executing this war. n/t

[icymist]

14. Yet, 'We' are the ones the world sees responsible for this war.

The simple fact is, we let it happen...from tolerating the censorship and propaganda from the RW to promote the war to our lax oversight of it's operation. This is a burden I wish I didn't have to bear.

[TryingToWarnYou]

16. Im sick too...

Disgusted and embarassed.

And for our lurking Freepers, I was disgusted when Saddam was doing it to, but we are supposed to be better than him dontcha think?

I hope and pray that every single US soldier responsible or involved is tried under war crimes statutes.