October 22, 2010, War is hell... etc.
Another day, another massive document dump by Wikileaks, this one concerning the Iraq war, and numerous allegations of torture possibly mean treatment by American troops and mercenaries contractors. Supposedly, the latest document release shows numerous incidents, including assaults, rape and murders, as well as more garden variety torture mean treatment, of Iraqi prisoners in American custody from 2004 through 2009.
Of course, the United States doesn't torture, so we might as well just stop there, and call it a day. You know, you go to war with the men and materiel you have, not those you wish you might have... and all that. And if a combination of too many tours, a (deranged) culture of psychotic permissiveness (which started right in the White House), the ongoing horrors of maintaining an occupation of an already hostile well-armed population on the verge of a civil war as it is, and a nebulous ever-changing "mission" (complete with inadequate body and vehicle armor) aren't enough to drive some of our military personnel utterly over the edge... well, then we'd have to entirely reject "the few bad apples" theory and suggest that the enumerated atrocities were, like a matter of deliberate policy and all... and, you know... we can't go there.
So... we'll just have to satisfy ourselves that most of our military personnel behave themselves honorably and within the law... even as the Dick Cheneys/David Addingtons/John Yoos of the world tell us there is no law, and the Eric Holders/Barack Obamas/Elena Kagans of the world tell us that whether there is law or not... it's a state secret.
Damn Wikileaks and their goody goody "disclosures." Don't they realize that many, if not most, of us would just prefer not to know any of this?
Update (10/24/10): Those namby pambies at the U.N. made a demand that Obama "investigate." See above re: "the United States doesn't torture." Why won't they just take our government's word for it and be done, the way the American public does?