This is only a simple example of abuse of the POWs, but since the US government doesn't seem to recognize any of the detainees as POWs, I guess it is OK. I have no idea how our folks in our society can be consumed by so much hatred and ignorance to stand idly by and allow crap like this to happen or to condone the occurrence.
These individuals were not PoWs. The Geneva convention also states that to be a PoW, they must have "carried arms openly, worn recognisable uniforms and insignia and report to a chain of command etc." I noticed that you conveniently left that little nugget of information out.
I resent the implication that I/we are ignorant because we do not agree with you. In case you have'nt noticed, the western world is under attack from an culture of extremist islam, which constitutes a tiny minority of muslims worldwide. Seeing as the the combatants in this fight would most accurately be described as fifth columnists here at home, and insurgents abroad, and the Geneva convention was written as rules of war between nation states as they were defined at the peace of Westphalia in 1648, the US was absolutely right to suspend the Geneva convention for this conflict.
The Geneva Convention was written to provide protection for officers, men and civilians in WWI and WWII. Those wars are over now, so the rules have to be revised.
As for how our society can be consumed with hatred - I doubt that it has, but I would consider the Madrid bombings, the London Bombings, 9/11, the Khadr family and Canadian troops killed by suicide bombers in Afghanistan to be a pretty good start for fomenting the seeds of unhappiness.
I never understood why we imprisoned Japanese, German, Italian, Ukrainian, etc Canadians during the two world wars. Was it racism? Was it a overzealous nationalism?
I would hazard that you don't understand a great number of significant events in history, if your posts are any indication. The abovementioned ethnic groups were detained during the WWs because we were at war with their home countries, and in many cases, they had emigrated to Canada after the doctrines (fascim, the Nazi party, the fall of the Tokugawa party and the rise of the militarists in Japan and Communism in the Ukraine) had already become dominant in their home countries. So their relatives at in their respective home countries could have been used as leverage by the regimes there to coerce them to work against us here.
It was not racism, simply a prudent wartime organisational to move a population of possible enemy operatives away from coastal areas and strategic bases and resources.
How this is relevant to the Abu Ghraib discussion is beyond me though, all of these groups have recieved apologies, compensation or both for these wartime activities.
To those of us who make excuses for the guilty serviceman, officers and government officials who treat fellow human beings like dirt, shame on us.
I suppose that you would prefer to coddle the killers of coalition soldiers in Canadian style "club fed" prisons, and allow them to retain information which could save the lives of our fighting men and women.
You are saying that we are better off with more of our soldiers dead, than some of the enemy being uncomfortable.
When it comes right down to it, none of the prisoners in Abu Grhaib prison died. None of them have any permanent injury. There are 2,281 coalition deaths, 2,083 Americans, one Australian, 97 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, two Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Hungarian, 26 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, one Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of November 18, 2005
But I suppose these men deserve to rot forgotten in holes in the ground so your sense of moral outrage can be massaged by not extracting vital intelligence from our sworn enemies, that would save future lives.
Please God let me never work for you.