had to say something (rant)

tommdroid has linked to it, and respect_otters doesn't know what to say, and I don't really either, but I just felt like I had to post something about the tortured Iraqi prisoners.

Maybe I'm still a Pollyanna at heart because I didn't really want to believe that any of our servicemen and women were capable of this, but then I found the pictures and looked (not safe for work, or small children, or anyone else, really). I fervently hope these are Photoshopped and while I sure as hell don't want to go back and look for telltale pixelation, I don't think they are :(

And yeah, I've read the references to the Stanford Prison Experiment and other apologia for the powerful exploiting that power, and I realize there's a valid argument to be made that the leadership is partly to blame....but I still have real problems realizing there are people in the world that not only delight in humiliating others, but feel the need to photograph it too. It's just one of those things that doesn't "square" with me, what can make an ordinary person do something like this and want to record it for posterity.

My guess, from my fairly naive position back here at the homefront: Wars are not pretty. In addition to the standard carnage, death, destruction, etc. there are going to be situations like this where the powerful exploit and abuse the weak because being in a warzone is a fucked up situation for even the best trained people. That's why I maintain that the decision to go to war should not be taken lightly, or with poor/false intelligence, or sold as something that it isn't (in this case, a cakewalk). To start this kind of shit you have to have a very fucking good reason.

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here, except that I'm disgusted that this isn't a bigger story and I'm embarrassed for my species that the mercenaries involved probably won't see justice - they aren't technically under anybody's jurisdiction, so the military can't touch them.

That is all.

now to lighten the mood a little...

This looks sort of cool: HauntCon - for the Halloween/haunted house industry.

Imagine a whole weekend of Halloween!