U.S. MPs Fear Being Tarred with Abu Ghraib Brush

[Barrett808]

U.S. MPs Fear Being Tarred with Abu Ghraib Brush
By Adam Tanner

PITTSBURG, Calif. (Reuters) - The men and women of the 870th Military Police Unit believe they did important work in Iraq, but fear it has gone unappreciated because of the place they did it -- Abu Ghraib prison.

...

Then abuses committed by a separate unit at Abu Ghraib, and in a different part of the prison, outraged world opinion. One of the faces of the scandal is that of Pfc. Lynndie England, who was photographed posing with naked, hooded Iraqi prisoners.

"We knew them all. She was laid back," said Staff Sgt. Ted Avila, one of the soldiers at the ceremony at the town hall in Pittsburg, California. When the scandal broke, "I said that can't be her."

Many of the 870th soldiers felt that the abuses by England and other soldiers clouded public appreciation for what they felt was their own good work to help the people of Iraq.

"There's a stigma and it will follow," said Lt. Antoine Brooks, a platoon leader. "I got so depressed about it because everyone was focused on the negative."

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040724/ts_nm/iraq_abuse_reunion_dc&cid=564&ncid=1480

[thebigidea]

1. Of course she was laid back - she blew off LOTS of steam.

[Fovea]

2. I got so depressed about it because everyone was focused on the negative.

And in ten years, one of his buddies who feels the same way, will park a rental truck in front of a large federal office building, or corporate headquarters.

Then they will walk away. Quickly.

[shraby]

3. The negative NEEDED

focused on because if it weren't, the deplorable practices would have continued without anyone knowing. They tried to sweep it under the rug in the first place hoping no one would notice.

[Fovea]

5. They cannot see the essential difference

between *no one* noticing, and 'no one they think is important' noticing. This is why they paid no attention to the internet.

[Joanne98]

4. They need to start blaming the mercanaries

[TahitiNut]

6. Well, Antoine, didn't anyone tell you there'd be a downside to ....

... "unit cohesion," and wearing the same uniform and patches? (sheesh!) :eyes:

Every time people in a uniformed, authoritarian organization love to march behind the "glory pennants" and take credit for the more laudable examples of the behavior of their forebears (merely because they wear the same uniform and unit designation), I look at them with sardonic puzzlement when, pulling their heads from the sand, they attempt to dissociate themselves with the less laudable behavior of their contemporaries.

The good comes with the bad, Antoine. Take both or neither. It's a package deal. You're taking a "ride" on the behavior of others, past and present. They don't wear mud flaps and neither do you. Live with it or get out.