RescueMan

This was clearly a tragedy for all involved, but from what has been so far posted I can't agree with the coroner's conclusion that this was an accident. This fatality was the result of extreme negligence on the part of both the belayer and whoever was switching the ropes on the ground, and the belayer always holds primary responsibility for the safety of the climber on the sharp end of the rope. While I'm sure those responsible don't need any more blame aimed at them than they're already feeling, I believe it's important for the climbing community to identify this mistake properly so that it isn't repeated in some other form. - Robert

What we do know is that many of the pictures were taken by one of the female grunts who was having "fun" at the expense of these prisoners, most of whom (60%) by the army's estimate are innocent of anything. One of the men featured in the pictures which have been made public has talked to the LA Times and this was a man who had welcomed the arrival of US troops but was arrested and held for many months for being a passenger in a vehicle with no registration papers aboard. The army's internal investigation called this mistreatment systemic. That puts the lie to the PR nonsense of this being an "aberration". The International Committee for the Red Cross and Amnesty International have also arrived at the same conclusion. And the victim who told his story said there was never any interrogation, so the PR nonsense about this being an attempt to "soften them up for interrogation" is also a cover story (though I don't doubt that "civilian" contractors encouraged this to happen). Rumsfeld, himself, created the atmosphere for these kinds of abuses to become inevitable when he said last year that the Geneva Conventions didn't apply to "enemy combatants" being held in Guantanamo. The greater irony in all this is our claim to be "liberating" the Iraqi people from the kind of torture and abuse committed under the Hussein regime in the very same prison where these abuses are continuing. Our reasons for invading Iraq where lies from the start. And our behavior there merely highlights how little we really care about democracy or liberation. The Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld team has made millions of new enemies for the US and has thus made us far less safe than we were before 9/11. The only interesting question is: Why are Americans so (you choose) blind, ignorant, stupid, arrogant that they can't see what's really going on here? - Robert

This kind of scapegoating and denial of real causes is typical of the "fog of war" - the official propaganda and the national refusal to see the larger picture, the picture that the rest of the world, particularly the Arab and Moslem world, well knows. There is little likelihood of those really culpable either accepting responsibility or being properly punished for what is euphemistically being called an "aberration". The army's own internal investigation called the mistreatment of detainees systemic. Rumsfeld had to admit that what hasn't yet been revealed is much worse than what has. We're talking rape and murder of prisoners who, by the army's own estimate are mostly innocent. There have been 25 inmate deaths at American hands, some by gunshot and some by blunt trauma. It's been a universal historical truth that occupying powers become abusive to those they control, and America is no exception. Nice of Rummy to apologize (I'm sure Bush forced him to take the heat), but it was his earlier cavalier dismissal of the relevance of international law which set the tone for these kinds of abuses. When asked last year about US treatment of Guantanamo Bay prisoners, Rumsfeld said he didn't care about the Geneva Conventions. America, under an unelected president, has thumbed its nose at all international law as well as the US Constitution. That is how we got into Iraq with no reasonable justification and against the better judgement of the world community, and that is how we continue to behave - as a rogue nation unfettered by anything like civility or accountability. Which makes us as bad as the 9/11 terrorists and much more dangerous, given the size and power of our arsenal (including the WMDs we've used in Iraq - depleted uranium) and our willingness to use it to further our "interests". - Robert