Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners

Chris posted the following:

So this morning I watched a very little bit of Rumsfeld’s testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, during which he offered an apology, and took full responsibility for the events at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. It’ll be interesting to see if he winds up falling on his sword over this. If he does, though, the pundits on the right might not agree that the right person took the fall. According to this analysis, the groups to blame for the prisoner abuses are either women or feminists or Muslims or the academic left.

But one factor that may have contributed — but which I doubt investigators will want to even consider — is whether the presence of women in the unit actually encouraged more misbehavior, especially of the sexual nature that the pictures reveal. –FOX News political analyst Linda Chavez

The image of that female guard, smoking away as she joins gleefully in the disgraceful melee like one of the guys, is a cultural outgrowth of a feminist culture which encourages female barbarians. GI Janes are kicking around patriarchal Muslims in Iraq? — The American Spectator managing editor George Neumayr

Some Arab commentators are repeating the myth that the West has, once again, humiliated Muslims. If there has been humiliation, it isn’t the fault of the West. It is Muslims’ fault. –Cal Thomas, columnist and host of a FOX News show

[I]ncreasing the quality of military recruits would probably help avoid future Abu Ghraibs. One constructive step toward that end would be for elite universities to drop antimilitary policies, so that the military would have an easier time signing up the best and brightest young Americans. — James Taranto, editor of OpinionJournal.com

My thought: [sarcasm] Yes… let’s blame everyone from feminists to universities. Better yet, let’s blame the people who protested this war. I mean, if they actually supported sending people over there to be used as human targets, this wouldn’t have happened, right? [/sarcasm]

I have a really novel idea: why don’t we blame the troops who committed these abuses? It seems like everyone is trying to put the blame on someone besides them. They acted on their own brutal impulses and they should be punished.

And yes, I am in favor of Rumsfeld resigning. It would be the honorable thing to do because it happened on his watch and he did not act on it at an appropriate speed. When the WTO riots happened in Seattle in 1999, Police Chief Norm Stamper resigned because it happened on his watch and he took responsibility as the one in charge. Technically, Dubya is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and *HE* should resign; but I seriously doubt that it will happen (mostly because simple logic and chain of command is lost on most people) because he was only informed about this a few days ago. Rumsfeld, on the other hand, knew about this for a few months and didn’t act on it — a very bad mistake on his part. Dubya apparently “showed his displeasure to Rumsfeld” but that isn’t enough. This kind of abuse should cost Rumsfeld his job and if he has any integrity or honor, he *WILL* resign.

Closing thought: Could we also muzzle Rush Limbaugh?

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Jen isn't quite sure when she lost her mind, but it is probably documented here on Meditatio. She blogs because the world needs her snark at all hours of the night... and she probably can't sleep anyway.

5 thoughts on “Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners

  1. The comments that your link attributes to Limbaugh were made by a caller. *Gasp* I agree that the individuals need to be help accountable. Kick them out of the military, dishonorable discharge, and send them home. They deserved to be spat upon rather than they way some of the radical left has spat on the memory of Tillman. The thing that sickens me is that this stuff happened in Jan, the military is having trials for the accused and they will be punished, the media had the info back then but no pictures. Now that they have pictures they are making us believe that it just happened.

  2. PS – I still don’t know about Rumsfeld yet, haven’t really liked him from the beginning, he seems to stick out from the rest of the administration.

  3. that’s what i’ve been thinking all along. all these people seem to act like everyone should be held accountable (and feminists!! grrr! whatever!) except these people. hmm…symptom of the larger societal problem with personal responsibility? yeah.

    but yeah, rumsfeld made a big mistake waiting so long to deal with this. that is really really dumb!

  4. Rumsfeld has been dealing with this since Jan. His problem was that he was an idiot and didn’t tell his boss what was going on.

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