Abuse less shocking in light of history

[Aquarian]

One of the most surprising things about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers is that so many Americans are surprised.

Decades of research and eons of history point to one conclusion: Under certain circumstances, most normal people will treat their fellow man with abnormal cruelty. The schoolboys' descent into barbarism in William Golding's classic The Lord of the Flies is fiction that contains a deeper truth.

And from Andersonville to the "Hanoi Hilton," no combination of circumstances turns us against our better nature faster than the combination of war and prison, whether we are acting on orders or on our own. ...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...u=/usatoday/abuselessshockinginlightofhistory

 

[st8_o_mind]

I think a lot of folks are shocked. I remember reading posts to this site where foks were Were genuinely perplexed about the Iraqi resistance writing things like “don’t they know we are the good guys” and the like. I am pretty sure that other visitors to this site believed that nasty things happen in war and in detention facilities and are a bit less surprised.

There is a legitimate question about where you should draw the line when at war. While there may be a lot of disagreement about where exactly that line should be drawn, it seems pretty clear to me that it was crossed.

It raises a couple of questions. Were the soldiers and civilian contractors in a crappy situation that got out of control, were they ordered to “take the gloves off” or did the chain of command break down to the point that there was anarchy within the prison system?

And how do we move forward to complete the mission in Iraq? How does the US military regain the trust of the American public and earn the trust of the Iraqi’s, most of whom have been skeptical about US intentions from the beginning? What a mess.

 

[krisy]

We don't win wars by being nice. I'm not saying go torture everyone,but the pics realeased thus far are not torture IMO. We beat the crap out of people in WW2 for info. Everyone thinks it's so bad,but if it saved your fathers,son's,brother's,life because they beat someone and got info,would it not be worth it?

 

[insein]

The problem is the media. 24/7 coverage of every death, every atrocity is televised to a Worldwide audience. So everything we do is scrutinzed. Same thing happened in Vietnam. Now i know why they say TV is the worst invention of mankind.

I shudder to think what would happen if we had 24/7 news coverage of WW1 or WW2. We'd all be speaking German or Japanese.

War is hell. The sooner we come to that realization instead of harping on every death and every minor incident as an atrocity, we will get through this.

 

[krisy]

I agree insein. I was thinking earlier about it and has anyone ever thought of having a media forum? There are quite a few people here that dislike the media,and some that defend them. As much talk that goes on in other threads,I bet it would get filled up pretty fast!