Opening statements begin in Lynndie England court-martial

For the article, click on the title.
These are my views on it:
A Masterchief once told me "son, don't do stupid things when your underage drinking in a bar." And he was right. Not to say that a sailor, who was a little shy of the legal drinking age, drinking in the enlisted club on a military base is the same level of heinous act that these people committed, the lesson is the same. If you are going to break the official rules, don't draw attention to yourself doing it, and don't leave proof that you did it. That is just stupid.

Without condoning the acts of England and her boyfriend, because to abuse ones power and treat other human beings the way they did is disgusting, but to say that these "incidents" occurred without the knowledge of anybody higher than the rank of private is complete and utter BULLSHIT!!!! To read this article just shows how whipped the mainstream media is and how investigative they are not. Remember kiddies, as far as the military is concerned, they will protect their own and do whatever damage control is necessary to contain the damage AS FAR DOWN THE FOOD CHAIN AS POSSIBLE.
If you want to tell me that a PRIVATE was the "ringleader" and the highest ranking person to be involved in these abuses, fine. But, it sounds a lot like a Lt. Col. having the power to make international arms trade agreements without anybody else knowing about it....in other words it sounds like Horseshit!!!
In all military environments there are practices that are not part of the official policies that are told to the outside. As a veteran I can say that this is for better and worse, depending on the situation. The Stanford prison experiment was an enlightening delve into the darkness that is the human pysche, and that was when all involved, guards and prisoners, were ivy league caliber college students Now, try the same thing with people who often come from less than fortunate environments and the prisoners have been officially branded as "enemy" and the whole experiment is only going to get worse.

If you want to make an example out of England and her boyfriend, fine, but I believe if you are going to go on a witch hunt than you should burn all the witches. I promise you that these were not the only people committing these offenses, but they were the ones caught on film committing them. These are not pictures that were taken in a hurry or a "can we get away with it" environment. The carefree attitude of all the guards in the pictures tells me that they were operating in an environment that condoned these actions, In no way is anyone showing signs of wrongdoing (which is wrong for several reasons, but I digress) but these pictures are taken in what appears to be broad daylight, meaning normal working hours in the middle of the holding area. If this is so, than this behavior is de facto sanctioned and if the highest ranking person guarding "suspected terrorists" is a private than there are command problems at Abu Ghraib that go much higher than private. Burn all the witches, not just the ones who were stupid enough to get caught.

BB