This kind of thing extends far past the military. The elephant in the living room with this issue is the abuse that goes on in our civilian prison systems here in the United States. Here in California, the prison guards have a LOT of political power. I think I pointed out quite a while ago that at least one of the perpetrators in Iraq had a background working in an American prison, and that this was not irrelevant to the issue.

When you are dealing with anything the size of the military, you are bound to get some bad apples. They should get weeded out in training, but I suppose many don't. The system, with luck, catches them later. A lot of people seem to forget that this abuse took place last November, the perpetrators were busted and delivered to the military justice system in January, the abuses were corrected, and these facts released to the press. Months before the issue became the current "silver bullet."

Anybody notice that we won the Great Uprising of April? I think Sadr is down to one city, but I'm not sure.