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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (168398)	6/3/2006 1:55:48 AM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793838

Abu Ghraib?? Are you still harping on that isolated incident and pretending it's a reflection of the entire military? I am sick and tired of hearing about Abu Ghraib! An Abu Ghraib type incident happens practically every day in civilian prisons all across America. One probably happened just down the street from where you live in D.C last night. How much effort are you putting into preventing the abuse by posting on bulletin boards? Are civilian prison officials and corrections officers all just "following orders" too? Was anyone raped at Abu Ghraib? Did anyone have probes stuck up their ass? I'll bet someone at a D.C. prison had it happen to them last night. The problem with such a single minded focus on incidents like Abu Ghraib is not that it's wrong to admonish the perpetrators. It's that it's wrong to take the incident and see it as a broad based reflection of the culture, climate and behavior of the entire organization. In this case, it appears you've taken Abu Ghraib and spun it into a reflection of how military members are trained to only "follow orders" and therefore represent some kind of danger, because they can't hold our Constitutional values above the culture of the organization. It's equivalent to finding a lawyer who abused his wife and kids and then seeing it as a reflection of the way all lawyers treat their family members. Not only is it an inaccurate portrayal, it's jaded toward the most negative aspects one is willing to see. The American military is not a perfect institution. However, I have a great deal of confidence, based on years of personal experience, the overwhelming majority of members within it represent a much higher level of professionalism and alignment toward Constitutional values then you perceive. I also have a great deal of confidence they are trained fundamentally far different than they ways you perceive them to be trained.