Just as the news was about to break about Nick Berg’s beheading, I received this e-mail from an Air Force guy:
I must add my voice to the mass of uniformed military folks who are disgusted by the behavior (documented in photo’s and on discs now) of those ’so called’ soldiers at Abu Ghraib. They can be thankful that I will not be sitting on their courts-martial juries. They, and their immediate command personnel would be in Leavenworth already, if I had my way. And what infuriates me even more is that I have a niece serving in the Guard in Kuwait right now. I worry that people in the region who may have been on our side, or at least neutral, have now been handed a reason to be angry and possibly strike out against anyone they see in uniform. So the noble and brave are at more danger because of the stupid.
And I can’t count the number of briefings I have had to endure on the “Law of Armed Conflict” since I started serving. Not that that really adds anything to good old common sense, which these people seemed to lack. That, and a sense of shame.