We need to demand the end of corporate mercenaries.

Any suggestions on the form these "demands" could take?

Raping a young male prisoner? Migawd. That's astounding. What the heck is going on over there?

I find it pathetic how the military is offering up the fact that the soldiers "did not receive in-depth training on the Geneva Conventions" as an excuse for their conduct. I don't know any provisions of the Geneva Convention either, but I'll bet common sense would a still tell a soldier that fair treatment of prisoners doesn't include making them perform simulated sexual acts with each other and ogling over their genitals.. That's what happens when you put morons in positions of authority with no oversight. Childish sadism, pure and simple.

And the AP reports that around 1,300 civilians where killed in Fallujah, including some folks just running away from their homes. I guess that's the kind of benefit the Iraqis are reaping from the occupation. Only the most deluded American would believe that we are doing good deeds over there. All I see is a shitload of innocent people and U.S. soldiers getting killed, and believe me, the former category is not going to have a memorial built for their remembrance. NOw, military control of the town is handed back to a general from the feared Republican Guard! We should just let Saddam out of prison so he can clean up this mess.

Guy B. Jones:

I find it pathetic how the military is offering up the fact that the soldiers "did not receive in-depth training on the Geneva Conventions" as an excuse for their conduct.

Actually, I think it's mostly one of the guard's lawyers who's been pushing that line, rather than the US military itself.

What I find unbelievable is how we are being told that this was something that was just due to a few bad apples in the US military.

From a New Yorker piece

I questioned some of the things that I saw . . . such things as leaving inmates in their cell with no clothes or in female underpants, handcuffing them to the door of their cell—and the answer I got was, “This is how military intelligence (MI) wants it done.”

When you look at how expertly the prisoners were dehumanised, clearly that situation was set up by MI to work out that way. So maybe there are some bad apples, but they're somewhere up in the MI and CIA leadership.

At least these "humiliated" prisoners were just humiliated. Most American prisoners are executed. I think they got off easy.

At least these "humiliated" prisoners were just humiliated. Most American prisoners are executed. I think they got off easy.

The Minds Limit Today

In Jean Amery's, The Minds Limit, his capture and descent into torture by German Nazi’s, starts by pointing out that his torturers showed no “banality of evil” in their faces. First there is the "laugh" and then the "first blow". The prisoner then realizes that they are "helpless". Lost is the “trust in the world.” Certainly there is no “mutual aid in nature.” No. It is time for the “business room.” But before describing his own torture the author makes “good on a promise I gave.” Not that they where not specialists in torture, but more so his conviction that “torture was the essence of Nationalist Socialism – more accurately stated, why it was precisely in torture that the Third Reich materialized in all the density of its being.” I ask you dear citizens should we also "codify" that the detainees at Camp Xray can also be children as recently reported in the news? Not only does that sound slightly like the rule of antiman but I do believe antichild included. And if that is so then the rule practiced as such has “expressly established it as a princple.” So just what else in "essence" does go on at Camp Xray – "tricks"? Plead mercy, pray tell? Refuse Himmlers offer for a Certificate of Maturity in History I would suggest. Nay, to forsake the Constitution and be depraved of our humanity would be more painful in the end Mr Rumsfeld. Slavery to torture is all you will get. Go tell that to the Marines Mr. Rumsfeld after you have tendered your resignation.

I am Citizen Michael John Keenan

In Faiza's blog: I want to stop for a moment at the incident of killing 4 Americans at Falluja.
Now we know that they weren't civilian contractors. They were working for a private security firm; a firm that trains men to perform assassinations and engage in fighting and similar actions.I remember now a comment made by my neighbor that I didn't believe at the time. Now it surfaces into my brain again. After the Falluja incident I called her and we talked about different things. She works for the ministry
of health and I know that those working at government offices know some secrets the regular citizen finds about much later...