As the fighting dragged on in Iraq, I warned my friends that it was only a matter of time before we suffered our generation’s version of the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam. (For the history-impaired, read more about that here.)

So now we have it – the photos of the tortured and humiliated prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. So much for winning the “hearts and minds” of the Iraqi people. Hmm, “hearts and minds,” where have we heard that before? Oh, yeah, Vietnam.

The maddening thing is how this paints an unfair picture of our troops. Most of the people who join the armed forces, active and reserve, are decent, law-abiding people who would be disgusted as we are by these acts. Of course we all agree to that. I was one of those troops. (SGT Russ Belville, Army National Guard, 25th Army Band, 1985-1990.)

But then we all know the small minority of people who join the military out of some macho bully/control fantasy they have. They’re the “kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out” types. Some of them are even women! And it only takes a mixture of oppressive conditions (heat, homesickness, extended tours of duty) and impossible stress (seeing your comrades die, killing other humans on a daily basis, prolonged sense of doom) with a dash of bloodthirsty leadership, enemy dehumanization, racism, and lack of oversight to lead to the putrid stew we have at Abu Ghraib specifically and Iraq in general.

No matter how much the government wants you to believe this is an isolated incident and just a few rogue soldiers, don’t believe it for a minute. For a soldier to be courageous enough to break the “green line” and come forward with these photographs just reveals the tip of the iceberg.

I also believe that the government wanted it this way. That’s why we have the “contractors” (read: mercenaries) in charge over there. No military chain of command, no messy Uniform Code of Military Justice or Geneva Convention to deal with, and plenty of distance from the Commander-In-Chief to provide plausible deniability.

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