http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/07/60minutes/main2238188.shtml

First, let me start by saying I'm from the same town as the hero, Joseph Darby, and the seven torturers. Cumberland is a Republican stronghold that, at best, is years behind the times. However, it is not as sinister and foreboding as 60 Minutes would have you believe. CBS was unfair to Cumberland.

My question though, is how can somebody find themselves defending the actions of the torturers? If you read the forum thread at the bottom of the page above you see a lot of people calling Joseph Darby a traitor who should be killed or otherwise maimed. I read that thread and I am disgusted by people's lack of respect for their fellow man. Furthermore, I am ashamed of my hometown for its role in creating the seven monsters and for shunning the American Hero, Joseph Darby.

It's not hard to imagine how someone could rationalize it. I haven't researched it, but from what I gather the abuse at Abu Ghraib wasn't exactly My Lai. You had a bunch of guys forced to do stuff that's on the same level as what fraternity pledges do willingly. Does that make it right? Heck no. But it's easy to concoct a scenario in one's mind where such abuse might be understandable, if not right. For instance, if the detainees were thought to have vital information that could save lots of lives.

Massaged in that way, the question becomes, "Should American troops and Iraqi civilians have to suffer and die because we feel a little queasy about making enemy combatants lie on top of one another naked?"

I think it's pretty clear from the photos that the abuse wasn't done from any "strategic" motivation, but rather out of sadistic pleasure.

You had a bunch of guys forced to do stuff that's on the same level as what fraternity pledges do willingly.... Massaged in that way, the question becomes, "Should American troops and Iraqi civilians have to suffer and die because we feel a little queasy about making enemy combatants lie on top of one another naked?"

This was the standard deflection of what happened at Abu Ghraib, most famously by Rush Limbaugh, but it's dangerously false.

Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), after seeing the full evidence (not all of which has ever been released): "The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here."

Salon published 279 photographs earlier this year if you want to review the Army's evidence for yourself. Note especially Chapter 5, which details a prisoner who was brought in helpless and beaten to death. (The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology ruled it a homicide by blunt trauma to the torso.) Not all of the photographs have been released-- one source claimed over 1,000 exist.

Anyway, not even close to "fraternity pledges".

valguarnera@carrionfields.com