Shocking Testimony from the Notorious Lynndie England

It seems likely. When her sister was interviewed she had "no comment" on the abuse of the prisoners but you could tell by her voice she enjoyed the idea.

Yet one more reason why you shouldn't let redneck trailer trash in the military.

"Yet one more reason why you shouldn't let redneck trailer trash in the military"

I have a problem with starting wars with a volunteer army made up of economically challenged young people.
Sivits was sentenced to a year in jail. On the stand he admitted he knew what was going on and didn't have the moral conviction to stop it. Perhaps some good will come from this tour through the army cesspool

It is my earnest and sincere opinion that Lynddie England makes Tonya Harding seem like Jackie Kennedy.

There is a marked resemblance BP.

Unfortunately, there seem to be three groups of people who voluntarily join the military.

1) The actual good people who want to defend their country. These seem to be few and far between.

2) The people who want to GI Bill and money for college. War? Fighting? That's not what they're in the military for!

3) The psychopaths and lunatics who get off on that kind of thing. These tend to be the real gung-ho, kill-em-all-let-god-sort-em-out types.

We need a whole lot more of #1, we keep getting tons of #2-3.

No person should insinuate that We, as a nation, need more 'actual good people' in our armed forces. This is not a war of ethics, nor a war to be fought with the words of observers. At the same time we need to allow and not hamper our judicial systems efforts to bring law breakers to justice.

The guy convicted today got a year in prison for taking a few pictures and doing nothing to stop the abuse. So far, a few officers got a reprimand for not stopping it. Rank has its privileges in the army. You can expect to get as much justice in the military as in China.

panzade: The CIA didn't run the interrogations; it was military intelligence, and, I suspect they were under intense pressure from above to get more results, because of increased insurgent attacks.

This public commission on the prison abuse would be laughable if it wern't such a serious matter. Everyone first kisses the posteriors of the Generals, then the Generals
lie their posteriors off, only to have them kissed them again. I would expect that from the Republicans but not from the Democrats.

Coluber damn it! You're right. I checked the sources and I was wrong.

I had a problem with cephus' devisions. A lot of supposing in the hearts of everybody.

Certainly people who can't even begin to think of college without the gi bill, look to it.

To me this points to

yoicks, we need college going help!!!

This seems to fall on deaf ears.

Very very sadly.

But then, as re military, what was I saying,

perhaps in another post.

The US army is a volunteer army. Hoping that the soldiers will fight and serve with honor is reasonable, but expecting it is absurd.

It is based around a core of professional, career solders (Powell & Schwartkopf, for example). It is their duty to ensure that international law is followed and the 'rules of engagement' are clear and ethical.

There's an important thread in the "International News" forum you may have missed. It's called "Sergeant says intelligence directed Iraq prison abuse."

There is another news story on the same thread about how General Rick Baccus was relieved of duty from Guantanamo Bay because he wasn't allowing interrogators to abuse the detainees. General Miller replaced him, the same general who later was made the head of prisons in Iraq and instituted the abuse there.

Apparently she was mostly an ordinary girl ... like many of those who end up war criminals were inconspicuous, ordinary folk earlier on ... "I don't believe Lynndie would actually be doing any of the actions that you see in the photos. It's not like her to be like that, she's a caring person," said her friend, and "her parents appear to have been loving and her childhood inno­cent", per MSNBC. In fact, her sadistic boyfriend, fellow accused Cpl. Charles Graner Jr., is a former prison guard ... you tell me whether an American prison guard works in a "moral vacuum" ...

That second MSNBC article ticks off the elements that could have been at work to turn England into America's poster child of military sadism ... and her background is the one element the article kinda discounts:


That said, though, I'm sure there's a message about the risks of a volunteer army in there somewhere ... if you have an army without draft, made up purely of volunteers - and you have a society in which joining the army is practically the only way to get to college (or make your way up, period) for a swathe of urban/rural poor ... there's risks.

Good post nimh.

'tis a wise person who knows what lurks in their own heart...

Good to see you again, nimh!

Does anyone else find this whole "trailer-trash" thing disgusting?

As if poor people are the only ones who commit appalling acts!

Yes, I did.
Also the thought that the sons & daughters of the wealthy, educated & privileged have absolutely no need to consider the army as a work option. It's different for so called "trailer trash".