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09/27/2005 Archived Entry: "More war crimes from U.S. soldiers"

MORE WAR CRIMES BY U.S. SOLDIERS. In violation of the Geneva Convention, they're apparently sending grotesque photos of Iraqi war dead and wounded to be published on the Internet. Their reward: access to amateur porn. And apparently also the dubious delight of writing "amusing" captions about maimed and mutilated people -- like the caption describing a woman with her leg blown off and her naked crotch visible: "Nice puss -- bad foot."

It's not that we shouldn't see the dead. Better to see war for what it is than to think of it as all yellow ribbons and "Mission Accomplished" banners. But the Geneva Convention forbids displaying photos of war dead for purposes of mockery and ridicule. And trading rotting, blasted bodies for porn as if the whole thing were one big laugh ... well, what kind of person does that? Even if it weren't a war crime, this certainly blows away any notion that U.S. soldiers in Iraq are "heroic liberators" who want freedom for Iraqis. The other day, I scoffed at the idea that abuse of prisoners came from "failure of leadership." But you really have to wonder ... who's in charge over there, and how clueless can the alleged "leaders" actually be?

Badmuggafugga posted this in the midst of an otherwise innocuous and unrelated thread at TCF. The story deserves wider attention.

Posted by Claire @ 04:08 PM CST
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