Moral Chernobyl is the most appropriate term I've seen for what happened.

Napolean noted "the moral is to the physical as 3 to 1." And this has done damage to American moral standing.

But we shouldn't ignore the physical. As Hitchens notes with his Brit Army/IRA example, the torture issue is related to professionalism. This entire episode has exposed the not only the poor standards of the 800 MP Brigade in particular, but also the way our non-combat formations are trained and run. There is a systemic rot in the US Army.

And the rot is not being cut out. We've seen 7 enlisted personnel put up on charges so far. These problems go up to at least the Brigade commander - that's a one-star general. Probably higher.

Some recommended reading, by people who know more than I do: David DeBatto and Bob Harmon.

PS - What's the "Rush's fratboy" reference about? I haven't been reading much news lately.