The devil will find work for idle hands...

I haven't yet commented on the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq that are all over the news because I didn't know what to say.

Am I shocked that the U.S. military is doing this to detainees (yes, detainees - many of those held in this prison are merely under suspicion of some unnamed thing or other, and many are totally innocent)? Sadly, no. Do I think this is likely the fault of way more people than those couple that have been named and pictured in the media? Yes. Do I think those soldiers in the pictures are innocent? No, I bloody well don't. You can see the glee on the faces of those soldiers as they cavorted with the naked, humiliated bodies of those detainees pictured. That's not just being in the wrong place at the wrong time (as some are saying), that's enjoying the humiliation and pain of another. And that is flat out wrong.

Mark my words, this is going to have far-reaching repercussions for years and years to come. The U.S. has lost what little credibility it had as any sort of peacemaker, respecter of other cultures, crusader for freedom. I've heard so many soundbites about all this. No less than Alan Dershowitz, on ABC a day or so ago, started out with a good commentary, but then said something about the hypocrisy of Egyptian papers criticizing the U.S. military for this, with their own track record in this area. Excuse me? So humiliating and abusing those detainees is OK because those Arab nations Bush is trying to "free" and "save" do the same? Gee, I'm sorry, I was told we were there to offer the people of Iraq a different way of governing.