Rumsfeld gettin drilled on CNN

[taylor492]

John McCain was rippin into him because he didnt know the chain of command at the prison where the prisoners were at. It pretty messed up that our soldiers were treating these prisoners like that but i do have to say, its better than the way the Iraqis treat our POWs.

What i didnt realize till i watched this is how many Iraqi and Afghan prisoners have died while in US custody. Senator Kennedy said that a while back a couple prisoners in Afghanistan died from "blunt force trauma". I think the number total that have died is like 35. That seems pretty high.

edit:anyone else notice that almost all the pictures have that one female soldier in them

[WenULiVeUdiE]

All of this for a small group of soldiers torturing some prisoners. Cant wait to see what happens Saddam gets to go to trial and become investigated. The press is going to die with all the tidbits of info, but of course since we already know about it, no one will care. Sometimes our country takes things way too seriously, and then others we dont. But seriously, what kind of sick bastard takes a broom handle and shoves it up a prisoners rear?

[jesseyo13]

Hey guys, you need to check out this movie I saw on pbs last night. It was almost disturbing.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/view/

Check out the movie called "Son Of Al qaeda"

[Dryden]

What i didnt realize till i watched this is how many Iraqi and Afghan prisoners have died while in US custody. Senator Kennedy said that a while back a couple prisoners in Afghanistan died from "blunt force trauma". I think the number total that have died is like 35. That seems pretty high.

I don't know that 35 is really that high, considering how poorly fed, clothed, and equipped these opposition soldiers are. Obviously, it reflects poorly on the American military when one single enemy POW dies while under US custody, but I don't think a rationally thinking individual would discount the thousands of enemy POWs that received their first full meal, shower, and bed in years while under US custody and were promptly released without such incidents. What I mean by that is, I don't think it's fair to assume that if 35 POWs died, all 35 were deliberately tortured or mistreated at the hands of their US or British captors. Without having a concrete source, I would venture a guess that more than half died shortly after being taken into custody by dehydration, malnourishment, or disease.

Too bad the US and it's foreign policy is so tremendously hated by so many that will not, cannot, or choose not to recognize that the behavior of a few US soldiers in some camps is not representative of their training or duties. A case of a few bad apples spoiling the whole bunch as it were.

I am hardly the biggest fan of Donald Rumsfeld, though he has a certain 'grandfatherly' quality the makes a person want to trust him. To his credit, he is a brilliant speaker. But I can't blame him - having to carry around all the knowledge that a person in his position does - that he is not familiar with the names of every single soldier at every US military installation around the globe.

Is it just me, or has Senator McCain made a concerted effort to be as visible as possible in the past six to twelve months? He's got his hands in everything!

[taylor492]

I would venture a guess that more than half died shortly after being taken into custody by dehydration, malnourishment, or disease.

Thats a pretty good guess. They said that of those 35 deaths, 12 were described as "natural".

[.tMan]

He is holding up pretty dang well right now. He's giving it right back to them.
personally I like Rumsfeld, I hope he stays

[RoadDawg]

I want to know. How did these pictures get out? Don't you think that the people involved wouldn't of been so careless? As a local radio person said, "What did they do, take it to a 1 hour photo in Bahgdad?"

[SlartyBartFast]

its better than the way the Iraqis treat our POWs.

Unfortunately, when the only remaining reason/explaination to be in Iraq is because Saddam had to be removed so that this sort of thing stopped happening ...

Well, you get hoisted on your own petard. Judge others as you would judge yourself.

edit:anyone else notice that almost all the pictures have that one female soldier in them

Well, according to the BBC online she's currently in the US in military prison. Her defense "It was just in good fun" is even worse than the male guard (who worked as a civilian prison guard) using the defense "no one informed us about the Geneva convention".

[Rooster]

First, to the woman in the pictures, How could you figure that was a good idea? Getting your picture taken with a naked prisoner is bad at any time, in any place.

Second, I feel no remorse for the prisoners any more than any of them feel remorse for the GI's that were burned alive then chopped up with shovels. And to the first moron who says you can't judge a people based on the actions of a few, bullcrap. The rest of the world is plenty happy to judge us as a people based on the faults of some of our worst, and I'm happy to return the favor. Mistreating POWs is illegal, thats the only wrong part I find about this situation.

Third, why would you take pictures of yourself doing something you knew was wrong? And if you wanted to beat up on some prisoners, why wouldn't make sure no one was photographing you?

[Halliday]

I'd like to see some of the photos and videos shown on Bagdad tv. Pix of US Soldiers being treated FAR more worse than being naked. How about being dead?

[mcveighr]

Theres also pictures of Iraqis that had been beaten to death.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

[PyRo]

I bet very few of those deaths are a result of mistreatment. I'm sure you have prisoners fighting with other prisoners, then you have some who were justifiably or accidently killed, suicides, etc. You need to see a report for every one of those deaths before comming to a conclusion.

[FactsOfLife]

Well, I am SOOOO glad our neighbors to the North have passed judgement upon our evil selves.

[Jack_Dubious]

I'd like to see some of the photos and videos shown on Bagdad tv. Pix of US Soldiers being treated FAR more worse than being naked. How about being dead?

In the interest of being fair and balanced......

were the pictures of dead americans.....dead POW's or soldiers killed in combat??


JDub

[Load SM5]

How about the pictures of the dead americans circulated on Arab TV, early in the war, that had been executed with a bullet through the back of the head? At the point they were unarmed on their knees, they were POW's.

In my opinion the treatment of the prisoners was deplorable, and those responsible should be punished. But the only thing Rumsfeld is guilty of is not informing the President sooner. He can't be held responsible for the actions of 5-10 people in one prison. If this was'nt an election year this would be a much smaller issue than it is.