Jonah Goldberg at NRO's The Corner says it better than I can. He's also posted an email from a veteran commenting on this outrage:
"Jonah,
... The damage done to our cause, and our country's reputation by this appalling conduct could be catastrophic. For all the people in the world who dismiss the Eurotrash's sniping at America, to say nothing of the likes of bin Laden and al Jazeera, this will be hard to explain and may very well plant a poisonous seed.
I'm not the parent of a fallen soldier or Marine, but I can just imagine how I would feel if, after experiencing the horror of outliving my child after
he or she died for freedom in Iraq, saw those pictures of the prisoners in
Baghdad. My kid's dead...but his memory, and his reputation as an American fighting man, ostensibly fighting against this same barbarity, has been sullied by guttersnipes led by a one-star witless moron.
700+ heros have taken a bullet and meanwhile...literally behind their
backs...everything they have bled and died for is being gleefully
undermined. These people pissed on their graves...and laughed. String 'em up.
I'll be happy to spell one of the guards at Leavenworth should they need it. ..."
Goldberg writes:
"The awfulness is twofold. First, there's the illegal, morally corrupt -- and corrupting -- evil of torturing people for the pleasure of it (and taking pictures of it!). Second, there's the counter-productive stupidity of it. Even if these guys were the worst henchmen of Saddam's torture chambers, the damage this does to the image of America is huge. How do we look when we denounce Saddam's torture chambers now? How many more American soldiers will be shot because of the ill will and outrage this generates? How do we claim to be champions of the rule of law?
Well, there is one way. This needs to be investigated and prosecuted."
Read the whole thing here and here.
