April 30, 2004:  #01  Political Satire/Commentary where satire is always commentary but commentary isn't always satire™ 
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No satire re betrayal of American troops by abuse of Iraqi prisoners by a few bad men among American troops-- A mission for JAG.·

    One would have difficulty conceiving that common-sense American civilians completely ill-informed about military procedure could claim "ignorance" (as has been claimed by the small number of our troops who displayed themselves abusing prisoners) that the kinds of treatment shown by photographs made by those few American troops abusing prisoners not only are wrong under common-sense morality but also contrary to conduct by soldiers respecting the rule of law.  Does the fact that a small percentage of our troops disgrace the vast majority who daily put themselves at greater risk to avoid harming non-combatants place us on the same footing with regimes that routinely commit barbaric atrocities in addition to uncivilized abuse against prisoners?  Of course not.  Our system, unlike the systems of such regimes, will treat such offenders as criminals.  

    Will the mid-eastern media make the effort to explain such distinction?  Almost certainly not.  Thus, the damage those few troops have done is enormous.  Not only have they disgraced and dishonored their country and their fellow troops, the vast majority of who routinely place themselves in peril to obey civilized rules of war, but they've also increased the dangers to their fellow troops' lives by jeopardizing their ability to maintain the trust they've gained, and regain the trust they've lost, among Iraqis.

    I just finished watching the latest episode in the long-running military morality play, JAG, which with rare exceptions does an excellent job of portraying the warts and the beauty-marks of our system, but the most enduring beauty mark consistently depicted by JAG is our system's willingness to remove the warts.  Such approach offers the only hope for our ability in the long-run to overcome the consistently deliberate distortions of such events in the mid-eastern media.  

    Making an example of the goons trying to pose as American "military police" is an essential part of what distinguishes our system from regimes that routinely treat their prisoners (and opponents) with barbarity.  In doing so, we need to seek maximum worldwide publicity for our system's application of suitable punishment on the offenders.  It will take a long time for such distinction to set in the minds of those in other countries blinded by hatred for us and the human-rights system for which we stand, but it's a worthwhile effort.  

    At the same time, one wishes there would emerge among non-fanatical Muslims a group of leaders willing to prominently, repeatedly and unequivocally condemn the consistently deliberate distortions against us in the mid-eastern media.  Just as it's not too much to ask (indeed expect) us to forthrightly condemn wrongful conduct by miscreants among us, it's not to much to ask (indeed expect) the same from leaders in the Muslim world.  Unfortunately, I'll seen few manifestations of such willingness.

--Jim Wrenn, Editor@PoliSat.Com.

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