Your surly, and quite unfounded, charges against our troops at Guantanamo lacks, big time.

A minor lesson, but one I'm sure you could as easily push aside, is this:

When you take basically nice people and toss them into the grinder of war, they change, and seldom in a beautifying manner. When private citizens in their own country "pretend" to support these same troops by protesting their actions, by desiring huge cuts in military spending, and by calling their activities criminal, they change. And when you take these same “products of war” and toss them into a verified enemy torture chamber so they can process their own combat detainees--who may or may not have blown their buddy’s head off the week before--they change even more.

And Guantanamo is under serious scrutiny. I can assure you that discomforts do occur there, but they are hardly the war-zone atrocities you seem to hope for.

That the U.S. Army was appalled by the behavior of its soldiers appears to have shot right over your head, too. I mean, even with this, you come back with "Again...Shame on the US!"? Your hoped for shame would come only if the U.S. Army was not appalled.

An interesting admission, btw, comes from Sergeant Chip Frederick in your posted article. He is a reservist, and a trained prison officer for the grand state of Virginia. His excuse, however, is that he has "no training" in how to deal with prisoners.

Too funny.

"We had no training whatsoever," he said. "I kept asking my chain of command for certain things... like rules and regulations. And it just wasn't happening."

He said he never saw a copy of the Geneva Conventions -- which govern the treatment of prisoners -- until after he was charged.

This is what leaves me appalled--especially since a copy of the rules of war, rules of engagement, and the rules governing POW treatment is always issued to soldiers in combat zones.

And, even though SGT Frederick’s charge appears to hold true, and if the report on him and his civilian job is at all accurate, he personally possessed knowledge of how prisoners were to be treated, and failed to apply it--to “toe the line”, as it were. As a former U.S. Army Sergeant myself (10 years at this workhorse rank), I say his claim is the purest form of crockery, and I he should soon be enjoying an extended stay-- stateside, with serious reduction in salary and at continued federal expense. Morons happen, but not as noncommissioned officers.

And whatever unit and promotion board authorized this idiot’s rise in the ranks should at least be investigated for past AR offenses as well. You don’t train soldiers for promotion to NCO. There was never any guarantee for promotion to, or retention of, the rank of NCO. You train your people to be leaders, period. If they fail to make the NCO grade, you don’t promote them as a “good-old-boy” favor, just because you like having them around. You thank them for their service, and honorably discharge them.

Dan
--ps--
Like Bowser, I wonder what’s going on with these “interrogators from US intelligence agencies”, as well as any local interrogators, the charged were apparently "assisting"...