I GUARANTEE, that if Cheney/bush had said this sort of thing was absolutely unacceptable, it wouldn't have happened. If Cheney/bush had said that there would be NO excuses, it wouldn't have happened.

Okay, let me get this straight. Had Bush, for some arcane reason, made a speech at the beginning of the war that stated that nobody should abuse captured prisoners, it wouldn't have happened? As though without that, there were no other rules? Maybe he should also have made a speech declaring that no innocent person should die in the war, or that nobody should wreck the power lines. Maybe while he's at it, he can stand in the dry marshes and bring the rain.

The situation was, and is being dealt with, through normal human channels. Knock yourself out making political hay out of it. I know that the objective behind this whole flap in the first place is to stick it to the Bush administration, and to hell with the thirty or forty people between those guards and Bush in the chain of command.

Just as an aside, I've noticed a tendency for some people (not necessarily you) to place politicians, especially presidents, in the same odd mental place gods used to occupy in our ancestors. The idea that somehow Bush could have "done something" to prevent almost any disaster you can name has shown up periodically. And it certainly didn't start with him. Might be worth a thesis to somebody. "President as Corn King."

Some politicians play to this. I remember one in the Democratic primaries guaranteeing that if he was president, he would capture bin Laden.