Okay, so everyone has seen the fallout of the soldiers who did something to Iraqis, the torture, the humiliation, the whatever. I still maintain that any soldier engaging in these acts, where they are taking advantage of their role in a prison to taunt and play with the inmates. is despicable.
It's also unprofessional, a word I can use to expand the little net I'm casting over the players in this retarded game.
I would like to point out that interrogation need not involve torture. When you have the time to process a person into a prison system, jail him, and keep him in a cage, what use is torture at that point? Proper interrogation methods will lead to information...running a prisoner through the electrodes won't get you anything, just screams and lies. This differs greatly from something you might pull in the field, scaring the absolute shit out of someone if you need information NOW, like that one officer who pulled a gun on a recently captured individual to get tactical intelligence. It also differs from "black" operations that may be going on where this stuff might be handled far more covertly. But in a prison?
The brigadier who appeared on TV recently ro blame things on military intelligence folks is still wrong. If she knew what was happening, she should have put a stop to it nonetheless, whoever was ordering the activity to continue. It's not professional for regular tropps to be doing this sort of thing. It's one thing to have the troops ferry papers from one office to another, or to select a prisoner for questioning, it's another for them to actively participate in interrogation on their own, especially in this crude manner. She's a general for crying out loud, she can make things stop. If she was told not to interfere by someone with more stars on their shoulder, we need to know who he is so his head can be put on a platter.
The cries of "we were only doing what we thought we were supposed to, there were no guidelines" doesn't wash. We don't treat prisoners this way. It's wrong, it's unprofessional, and the Army is not a mob of thugs. The Army is composed of professionals, and they should have acted that way. The fact that they did not is a travesty. Fortunately, the system is working, and the perps are being punished, not promoted.