I honestly hope the people who are responsible for this bullshit are handed over to Iraqi authorities once (if) they get their government up and happening.
Not like its going to happen, but the US should completely turn their backs on the scum who could perpetrate shit like this (and be stupid enough to get caught). Fucked thing about this issue is that the people who were probably responsible for putting the dimwit guards in place would love to be able to hand them over and exonerate them of any wrongdoing, but its not like anyone save for the privates from Bumfuck, Missouri are gonna get in trouble anyway…might as well use them to send a message.
It’s been on the news for several days now… I don’t know what the hell the US Troops were thinking, or how putting this on the news and publishing the images will help anything.
You’re right Dave, nothing new. It’s been going on for a couple of years at Guantanamo Bay.
Let’s not forget the Canadian Airborne in Somalia, pretty much the same thing.
Any undisciplined military unit will do this. That’s what it’s about, lack of discipline and professionalism. These are generally reserve units (the woman with the Iraqi guy on the leash is a reservist, for example), with little professional and consistent leadership.
If you read about the German and Russian experiences during the Second World War, you’ll find the same kind of crap, but it was always done by the second-line or rear-echelon units. Good front-line professional soldiers would never allow those under them to display such lack of discipline.
And you’re right that it’s not about “a few bad apples”. It’s everybody in the unit. The Canadian Forces were right to disband the Airborne for this very reason. Most of those soldiers are now fine soldiers in other more disciplined units (JTF2 comes to mind).
Oh, and lots of people think Zimbardo crossed the line with his famous Stanford experiments, I was just reading something about that the other day. Unethical research methods and all
