From the beginning, the worst thing about the Abu Ghraib affair was this: That every humiliated prisoner puts scores of innocent American troops in heightened danger. That while Leash Girl might be back in Fort Bragg safely gestating her little Damian, what she left behind makes her fellow soldiers that much more unsafe. Anyone who thinks we aren’t thisclose to a barracks bombing or some other mass atrocity as a result of this simply isn’t paying attention. Nick Berg could well be only a warmup.
So what’s the reaction in the whistle-blower’s hometown? Oh, they have their priorities straight:
“They can call him what they want,” says Mike Simico, a veteran visiting relatives in Cresaptown. “I call him a rat.”
colleen said on May 18, 2004 at 12:39 pm
That’s such a sad statement on our society. But it’s a lesson we’re taught from grade school on…”no one likes a tattle tale”. It’s a lesson we learn too well.
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alex said on May 18, 2004 at 2:36 pm
The O.J. Simpson verdict seemed to defy understanding at the time, but the best explanation I’ve heard would seem to be buttressed by what we’ve got here. It’s not that the jurors believed he was innocent, or even that the prosecution failed to make its case. Rather, they were afraid of going home to places like Watts had they delivered any other verdict than an acquittal.
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Michael G said on May 18, 2004 at 10:35 pm
Yeah, well, we all know that people from a place like that have a family tree that looks like a telephone pole.
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Lance Mannion said on May 19, 2004 at 11:37 pm
Sample is too small to make judgments about the state of the country, Joseph Darby’s hometown, or even that particular bar. Man on the street interviews (unless done by Jimmy Breslin) aren’t any more revealing of the character of a place than a single randomly aimed Polaroid snapshot. Reporter might have walked two blocks in another direction and found 28 people who think the guy’s a hero. Reporter may have set out to get that particular story. She may have deliberately sought out a bar where she knew she was likely to get the kind of response she wanted to write about. It’s been known to happen. Look at the NPR religion reporter who went to interview some regular Catholics coming out of mass about John Kerry’s communion habits and “just happened” to hit on four right wing conservative types with political connections to the Bush administration.
The reporter on this story may have asked the wrong kinds of questions. Or she might just have been unlucky (or lucky, depending on how you see it) and could only get these quotes. I’m suspicious of anybody who voluntarily talks to a reporter anyway. I think the group self-selects for dumb. I think most smart and sane people’s reaction to seeing someone coming at them waving a pen and a notebook or a microphone is to run the other way.
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