“Torture Happens”
I have to confess feeling a great deal of sympathy for Lynndie England. Her mother is probably more disturbed that she is smoking than holding some naked guy on a leash in that now famous photo. I’ve read that Lynndie has lost 25 pounds and has trouble sleeping.
All her pictures look like she is posing for someone who wanted her in the picture. My guess is that, coming from a small town, a small fish from a small pond, she wanted to “fit in,” be “one of the guys.” She is not a “monster” as depicted by some; she only wanted to please. Now she has become a symbol.
I see it like this. The boys get rowdy and abuse the prisoners, probably laughing the whole time (if they were Germans, not Americans, this would be described as “sadistic laughter”). Then one of them says, “Hey, Lynndie. Get over there, let’s get a picture!”
There should have been better supervision. A year or so ago, when state department officials were gloating over a “no more mister nice guy” approach to enemy prisoners, they would have better kept quiet. What they accomplished by their bragging on national TV that their hand would no longer be tied, winking and nudging about torture all the while, was to create a permissive environment. Discipline must be enforced in the military, but permissiveness rolls effortlessly down the hillside as easily as that big rock in Raiders Of The Lost Ark.
At the very bottom of the hill is that poor naked guy with the leash. Slightly above him stands Lynndie England. Higher up the hill, out of the picture with even the widest-angle lens, are the winking and nudging guys. They won’t lose 25 pounds or any sleep because they'll never get caught. It's called plausible deniabilty.
6:31:46 AM 
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