Two Paths
This prison abuse story has a couple of paths left to take, both of which I expect to come because of what I'm reading, and each points to a different, perhaps even conflicting, explanation of the cruelty to Iraqis. Both, by the way, offer direct conflicts to the Limbaugh "prank, blowing off steam" theory.

The first is along the lines of what I've tried to suggest, along with many of you, in the last several posts: that there is, or must be a supervisory role to all this, empowering this behavior as a psychological tactic, sanctioned if not encouraged. I've even gone so far as to suggest this is a mitigating factor in assigning blame to the guards, that they're being asked to do it. The Guardian has a new story that lends credence to this path. If you are like me and have thought these tactics couldn't have just been thought up by our young guards, support is found here:

"The sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was not an invention of maverick guards, but part of a system of ill-treatment and degradation used by special forces soldiers that is now being disseminated among ordinary troops and contractors who do not know what they are doing, according to British military sources." (via Talking Points Memo)

So, down this path, far from being a prank, or blowing off steam, sexual humiliation was not mere mindless sadism, but an incredibly dangerous, known tactic. Remember, these soldiers have already gone along with the order to kill Iraqis on the battlefield. Now, they're being told sexual humiliation is a tactic with military purpose. How will they know where to stop?

The other path that this story seems sure to take is worse. Rumsfeld confirmed today that there are more pictures, and videos, showing worse things than we've seen publicly to date. MSNBC has some lurid, and heartbreaking, details:

"Rumsfeld did not describe the photos, but U.S. military officials told NBC News that the unreleased images showed U.S. soldiers severely beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex with a female Iraqi female prisoner and 'acting inappropriately with a dead body.' The officials said there was also a videotape, apparently shot by U.S. personnel, showing Iraqi guards raping young boys."

There are already some allegations of sodomy with foreign objects. That, with, especially, rape of a female and of children takes this scandal, in my mind, far beyond any authority/following orders argument can mitigate. No soldier can claim not to know those things are not to be done. All arguments of human frailty, obedience, lack-of-training, stresses of war aside, it is not too much to demand our troops refuse to rape a child (for God's sake), no matter what or who is compelling them. These more serious things (not that the others aren't serious) could not possibly be reasonably be confused with sanctioned miliary tactic.

I know, I know, I'm the one that's been arguing for a less judgmental assessment, to not underestimate all of our capacities to be cruel in the right circumstance. But I may have found my limit in this new material. The question I will have is what relationship do the 2 paths of abuse have, the "tactical," i.e., "I needed to, didn't want to," and the clearly criminal? It can't be coincidence that both took place at the same prison. It's a total failure of organizational leadership: planning, training, oversight, guidance. Only a gutless President, blind to the reality of failure, wouldn't dump his entire military/security advisory staff and leadership.