I haven’t weighed in on the controversy surrounding the photos of US soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners. It’s just sickening. Today, the White House speaks out.
The White House denounced abuse by U.S. troops of Iraqi prisoners as “despicable” and called for disciplinary action against those responsible on Friday after photographs depicting the acts were published and broadcast around the world.
The photos showed U.S. troops smiling, posing, laughing or giving the thumbs-up sign as naked, male Iraqi prisoners were stacked in a pyramid or positioned to simulate sex acts with one another.
“We cannot tolerate it and the military is taking strong action against the individuals responsible for these despicable acts,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
It cannot be tolerated. The worst part of the fallout over the pictures is the Arabic television stations airing the pictures. Our image over there couldn’t be worse right now. Jon over at QandO says it best.
The soldiers involved are compromising our mission in Iraq, endangering the lives of US troops, and creating more reasons for those in the Middle East to hate us. They should be punished as severely as possible, dishonorably discharged, and publicly humiliated. I would suggest worse, but we are a more civilized society than the actions of those soldiers might lead one to believe.
Regardless of our feelings on the mission in Iraq, this type of crap has no place in the military. I, for one, would like to see swift punishment.
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