journal.novachild.com: Woo Fucking Hoo

Woo Fucking Hoo
5/05/2005

This really bothers me. ~~How can a judge declare a mistrial based on his opinion regarding the legitimacy of the defendant's plea? Has he looked at the photos?~~

I suppose I should rephrase my frustration. Declaring a mistrial on a defendant's response to just one of the multiple counts seems a bit ridiculous to me. But I'm not an expert on these matters.

I agree that you can't have a 'one-person conspiracy,' but I also think that anybody willing to smile and pose while a picture is taken of naked iraqi prisoners stacked in a pyramid should be severely punished. She didn't know this was illegal? Come on, what a crock of bullshit. You look at it and tell me she was just following orders:

(yep, just followin' orders.) (more photos).

England, her cohorts, and anybody that knew about the mistreatment and torture without taking appropriate action need some serious sorting out. Not a mistrial.

I remember the day I first saw those pictures. It was a day that will exist forever in my mind, the day that I realized how truly disgusting and hypocritical human beings can be (now I'm not so naive). The insanity didn't stop at the pictures; it spilled over into world around me, in people I knew, standing around water coolers and laughing about it, trying to justify it against the violence of the terrorists. I just couldn't believe it, and I still can't.

Where is the public outrage? Where is the accountability? Where is the common sense to repair the damage? Was it all crammed down the toilet along with our civil liberties, our sense of responsibility, our sanity? Why do people pretend that it's all ok, that we're still the good guys, that this is the sort of thing good people do?

Following orders or not, sexual humiliation is only fun when it's consentual. It's rape and exploitation when it is not. And the face of Lynddie England is burned forever in my mind as the face of America's shame. Humanity's disgrace. Letting her off the hook, as well as the others who have already been acquitted or merely slapped on the wrist, sends a message to the world that we are just a bunch of hypocritical bastards with no sense of responsibility or dignity or respect. Correcting myself here. While I'm not denying we have already sent the message that we are 'just a bunch of hypocritical bastards with no sense of responsibility etc,' the jury's still out on the England case. The trial begins again. So she can't plead guilty to one of the many charges held against her, whether guilt is apparent or not (in the case of the leash, apparently it is a 'standard prison procedure,' though it doesn't seem very standard to me). So I was a bit of a hothead. She's still guilty of some pretty awful things that reflect poorly on our country. And I hope they get on with it and start holding people accountable, rather than slapping them on the wrists and sending them on their merry way.

Just when I thought I couldn't be more angry at the disgrace that has become of our (republican-controlled) government, demoralized military, and spoonfed, apparently brain damaged general public, injustice continues. John Q. Public sits idly by, hypnotized behind their TV sets, distracted by the next big thing, spoon-fed by the media and disgraced into hibernation by the incompetent leadership of this country and the demoralized, lunatic representatives in our military who willingly execute their own brand of terror upon the enemy.

A little bit of hope would be a good thing about now. And seeing as how today is the National Day of Prayer, I've really got a lot to pray about. I pray for fairness, justice, and right action. I pray that people who create suffering open up to the understanding of what they do. I pray that the people who sit idly by awaken to the true state of things and feel it within their hearts to make things better . I pray that all Americans realize the courage and the conviction to hold these criminals accountable for their actions. And ultimately, I pray for some kind of enlightenment to happen, because the human race could really benefit from a mass awakening of consciousness right now.

posted by Edward Svengali @ Thursday, May 05, 2005,