4plexowner, I don’t have time to respond to everything right now. With respect to Abu Ghraib and other instances of misconduct, it is inevitable that things like that are going to happen (not that it should be tolerated). If you look at the big picture and compare the overall conduct of our troops against that of ANY OTHER OCCUPYING force in the history of the world, I defy you to find an armed force that has behaved better or with more compassion. We are building schools and supplying hospitals and doing untold other good works that aren’t reported because the media would rather vilify our troops.
War is as ugly as it is inevitable but we have gone to great lengths to try to reduce the ugliness among civilians. It is NOT possible to shield all innocents, however.
I would be outraged if I found out that we were routinely cutting off people’s limbs just for the enjoyment of it, organizing camps of women who are used as prostitutes and raped repeatedly, keeping people in horrible camps where they are starved, beaten and used for horrific medical experiments (don’t go off on Gitmo, there is no comparison), packing people on railroad cars like animals and transporting them for days without food or water, gassing thousands or lining them up over ditches so their bodies could be easily disposed after being shot. All of these things have happened repeatedly in the recent past by other groups, including the Iraq.
I am quite certain that there are going to be isolated problems but they are not epidemic.
Abu Ghraib was bad but compare what happened there to true atrocities. There is no comparison.
Do you believe that Iraq was better off with Saddam Hussien’s vicious government?
