Horrible, Part 2
You’ll remember back on August 26th I commented on the website that offered US servicemen access to online porn in exchange for pictures of Iraqi war dead.
Well, finally the Defense Department has acknowledged the site, investigated it, and has decided that basically, it’s no big deal:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Army after a brief inquiry has failed to determine whether U.S. soldiers provided grisly photos of people killed in the Iraq war to a porn Web site in exchange for free access to it, officials said on Wednesday.
….The Army Criminal Investigation Command in Iraq conducted the preliminary inquiry within the past week but closed it after concluding no felony crime had been committed and failing to determine whether U.S. soldiers were responsible for the photos and whether they showed actual war dead, Army officials said. </i>(from Yahoo)
Ok, I think a picture such as this can safely rule out whatever bullshit the DoD states:
“Horrible, Part 2-X170”
This is a violation of the Geneva Convention. This is causing outrage across the Middle East. I imagine the DoD will resume an “investigation” once enough ink is spilled about this, and I also understand that like the multiple Abu Grahib cases, nothing will come of it, except for the scapegoating of a few low-ranking troops.
I think a productive tack might be this. Go to the site in question, print out a few of the really horrific shots, run off say 100 of them, and stick them on the windshield of every car with a stupid magnetic ribbon pledging support of our troops. Is that fair? No. The vast majority of servicemen are honorable, proud people doing a dangerous and unpopular job. They deserve our support. But the people who support them blindly, (if not particularly actively, of course) need to see not only what dead people look like, but also, what war will do to a person. A person who may well be their own kids.
Get enough public disgust about this issue, to the point it gets back to the troops in the field, then perhaps they’ll begin to break ranks and question just what in the hell our “president” has gotten us into.
