Nadine,
<<< I haven't seen anything at all that would give me figures on it, or anything to tell me if the guys who were abused were picked at random from the prison population.>>>
It's much worse than you think. According to Seymmour Hersh Major General Antonio Taguba has all the details in a report he wrote in February and that is now (my guess) circulating.
It is my opinion that you could get any group of young men, anywhere (including any Harvard fraternity or even any religous school), and be able to find enough people going along or participating in the atrocities now in the news.
But, the difference is, that we as a nation do not approve and we are going to put a stop to it. That is a huge difference.
Having said that, and in my opinion (probably shared by very few) we should go after the higher ups (somewhere in the middle of the hierachy). The woman (Brigadier General) who was in charge of the facility, IMO was never fully in control. Listening to her, I am pretty sure she would not have approved if she had known those activities were taking place. Having said that, I don't know if she was strong enough (characterwise) to have stopped it even if she knew what was happening.
The people that I think are guilty will never be caught. They are the professional psychopaths that we (all of us) have responsiblity for using to do our dirty work that we wouldn't want to do ourselves. They are the cloak and dagger people that we tell to go get the job done - whatever it takes - but if you get caught we will never admit that we gave you the authorization to commit atrocities.
The photographs and the videos are of the kids who were vulnerable (people not too different from us, myself included ) - and were an instument of the professional psychopaths.
The real lesson, that I don't think we will ever agree upon, is that IMO you can achieve your objectives (and more effectively) without resorting to unethical behavior.
Yeah, yeah - don't tell me - I can hear the laughter. |
