Well, this is comforting: The Army has opened an investigation into whether American troops have sent gruesome photographs of Iraqi war dead to an Internet site where the soldiers were given free access to online pornography, Army officials said Tuesday.
This story is so horrible, on so many levels, that I’m pretty much speechless. Comment if you like. For research purposes, John Aravosis has links.
james said on September 28, 2005 at 11:24 am
Man, they’re on top of things…
I heard about this weeks ago… it was even on AirAmerica’s Morning Sedition yesterday (which I podcasted and listened to today…
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Dick Walker said on September 28, 2005 at 12:31 pm
And all these cool killers are coming back to live here someday. Somehow this stuff makes collecting ears seem quaint.
The mission is rotten and it’s spoiling a lot of young men � and women. Right, Miss England?
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mary said on September 28, 2005 at 1:10 pm
If we go after Lyndie England for her Abu Ghraib antics, and if, after an investigation, we go after those guys in the obscene photos posted at that website, why aren’t we going after the low level guys who carried out Saddam Hussein’s atrocities? Nope, we went after Saddam Hussein. The leader who oversaw things. The leader who oversees these crimes against humanity should be held responsible as well.
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john said on September 28, 2005 at 2:50 pm
Not to excuse the behavior or the folks behaving it, but it’s a pretty messed up situation over there – lots of hours spent every day wondering if you are about to die a painful, gory death. I shudder to think of the problems they – and we – will have when all those guys get back home and try to settle back to “normal.” I’m reminded of the great line from “Hearts and Minds,” the Vietnam documentary. To paraphrase and update: People are shocked when kids go over there and go crazy. What would be really scary is if we sent so many kids into such an f-ed up situation and they didn’t go crazy.
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Drew said on September 28, 2005 at 4:17 pm
I second what John said. Not to excuse the behavior of the Pvt. England types, but all kinds of atrocities were carried out in Europe and Asia during WWII by American and Allied servicemen. It’s just, back then we had a press that was more or less a propaganda arm of the government (or, more accurately, a press that was a propaganda arm of the Soviet government, which desperately wanted America’s entrance into WWII), and so those things were never brought to light. War is hell.
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mary said on September 28, 2005 at 4:57 pm
I think that the atrocities are terrible, but they are compounded by sending the digital images to a website for sharing. The display and broadcasting of this stuff is an atrocity on top of an atrocity.
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alex said on September 28, 2005 at 11:35 pm
The whole world is watching? If only it were so.
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