And (if this photo is real) it's come to this. A British soldier urinates on a young Iraqi prisoner, clamps his boot over the hapless detainee's throat... well, the picture's there. Take a look. The Daily Mirror stands by the photos it published, discounting a growing clamour that they're hoaxes. This scandal is hot on the heels of a slightly larger one involving American troops degrading Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison.On the British side, they're now started arguing about which way our boys lace up their boots and button the pockets of their combat pants, whether or not the rifle is current, the vehicle too clean, the black-and-white film an anomaly. In the US, the furore centres around expressions of disgust and investigative action against those concerned. Listen to Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of coalition operations in Iraq: "It's reprehensible that anybody would be taking a picture of that situation."
Reprehensible?? That anyone would *take pictures*?? That 'situation'?!
Before I really sound off, here's one of the guys who's implicated in direct torture, and under investigation (note that not one of the troops involved has been shipped back to the US for trial - and that court martial still means you're in the friggin' army!): ?We had no support, no training whatsoever. And I kept asking my chain of command for certain things...like rules and regulations, and it just wasn't happening."
I'm really finding it difficult to restrain the expletives here. Let's see. You and your fellow troops are directly implicated in gross mistreatment of human beings. Stripped naked, posing them in provocative ways, piling them naked on top of each other, wires to their genitals, pointing at their bits and laughing. It's on film.
I don't give a fucking shit about the fucking 'chain of command' or 'these people are trained to kill' or 'terrible war, gradual desensitising' or 'our orders were vague' or any of that bullshit.
YOU DON'T EVER DO THAT TO ANOTHER HUMAN! EVER!! AND YOU KNEW IT!! YOU DOGS!!!
Get these people out of the US and UK armies right away. Get them out of Iraq right away. And if due process then judges them guilty, get them into prison right away because if a civilian did that to another civilian, it'd be 10 years or more. And they sure as hell wouldn't be allowed to be around guns. Army or no army, no excuse.
And after some more consideration: get most of the army to psychiatrists once a month.
Update: the UK pictures featured at the head of this post are, as of 14 May, still the subject of controversy over their veracity. The UK Government now says they were definitely faked but hasn't produced evidence. The Daily Mirror says they definitely weren't, but hasn't produced evidence. So we wait. -- Second Update: as of 15th May, Piers Morgan, the editor of the paper which published the above, has resigned and the paper has apologised.
