You seem to be upset because the secret is out, that these matters are being reported. NOT that they happened, but that the media is reporting them the way they did My Lai. And that no one is saying that Saddam did it more. In his thirty years in power.

I know I'm upset about the QUALITY of these acts, what the quality of those acts does to the people involved, and what the quality of those acts says about the present political administration of my country.

They are even more reprehensible following, as they do, the unprovoked aggression of my country into theirs.

Having said that, it is offensive to see people justify them on the basis of QUANTITY. We aren't as bad as the badguys because we haven't tortured as many.

I can see a parallel in a trial.

"Your Honor, my client may be a rapist. May have raped her a couple of times, even. However we need to compare this to her previous boyfriend, who had raped her a couple of hundred times. And we need to consider that my client was dating her in the first place to protect her from that previous boyfriend. My client, although maybe he raped her a couple of times, is noble and has the best of motives.

"Therefore, his few rapes need to be compared to the multitude of rapes by her previous boyfriend. Not as bad. Really. Promise."

Now, do you believe all the additional folks who allege mistreatment are now lying, or is it possible the mistreatment of people in custody was widespread?

Does anyone think a guard had to understand the Geneva Convention to understand it was not OK to have one prisoner standing naked simulating masturbation into the mouth of another naked prisoner, and then photographing them?

Is the QUALITY of that act enough to disgrace the country which supplied the uniforms those guards wore?

EVEN IF IT HAPPENED ONLY ONE TIME??!! And clearly it was a culture.

Rumsfeld, Myers and Kimmitt DIDN'T EVEN READ THE REPORT.

The damage to my country done by these people all up and down the ladder, all the way to the top, is beyond measure. And is only made worse by those who excuse them. It's not the reporting.

Arf