That's what our military is looking like more and more. The response to the widely publicized and criticized abuse pics from the Iraqi prison? Why, let's release all the prisoners. That makes total sense.
I have no idea what most of these people had been picked up for but I'm guessing and hoping that some of them had actually committed crimes and were being held for good reason.
What is the message that's being sent here?
I'm thinking its something like, Be Careful about getting picked up by US soldiers, they'll keep you locked up, humiliate and torture you some and then send you on your way.
This move makes very little sense and is the political equivalent of trying to get a band aid to stick on a wound that's shooting blood four feet in the air. It ain't gonna do much except get some seriously pissed off former POW's back into the populance to spread their stories about the mistreatment they experienced at the hands of the US military. That will, no doubt, go a long way to helping ease tensions.
Yeah sure.
On a side note, Ryan wrote a short post about the Nick Berg beheading and had a huge (for him) amount of traffic yesterday and is now postulating that the mainstream web surfer is often looking to the blogging world for news when the Big Media is too timid to touch it. I see both sides of this coin, a better dissemination of information is a good move however, if that information being spread is false then it can be just as damaging. Although I would argue that virally spread news will likely get called "Bullshit" faster than whatever the talking heads on CNN, Fox or ABC are saying.
So here is my image for you for this Friday morning. Chickens, without their heads, have been rumored to run around a bit if you let them. A chicken with its head cut off is about the least directionless whirling dervish I can think of. Not to compare our military to a chicken, just the leadership. The men and women who ordered the abuse at the prison and then served up some reservists for punishment while hoping no one notices that they had a direct hand in all of it. Heads should roll, oh wait, that's probably inappropriate given Mr. Berg's recent decapitation.
A question I do have about Nick Berg though, what was he really doing there in Iraq? Why would someone willingly enter a warzone, willingly turn down help and then head off into the dangerous and American-hating areas? Was he a war profiteer searching for some fat rebuilding contracts to get rich off of, was he there for humanitarian reasons? What was he doing? I have sympathy for his family but, and I hate to admit this, I don't really have a whole lot of sympathy for him. He did all of this willingly, he knew or should have known, the risks and chose to enter the warzone anyway. Sorry but that smacks of stupidity or exploitation. Can someone direct me to a place where I can learn more about what he was actually doing in Iraq?
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