Iraqis call Lynndie England jail term travesty

[sabra]

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6120632&cKey=1127904644000&ticker=true

Iraqis call Lynndie England jail term travesty

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqis expressed fury on Wednesday over the three-year jail sentence for Lynndie England, the U.S. soldier notorious for holding a naked inmate by a leash in Abu Ghraib prison, saying it exposed American hypocrisy.

They said the sentence would have been more harsh had she been convicted of abusing Americans.

"America should be ashamed of this sentence. This is the best evidence that Americans have double standards," said Akram Abdel Amir, a retired bus driver in Baghdad.

"There are Iraqis in jail without any charge, just based on suspicion. But when it comes to Americans, the matter is totally different."

England, 22, was sentenced on Tuesday by a U.S. military court after being convicted of abuse, including being photographed pointing to the genitals of a naked Iraqi prisoner.

[CitrusLib]

1. I don't know what outrages me more.

Her light sentence or the fact EVERYONE higher up who allowed this to happen, condoned it or set the stage for it is getting off scott free. :mad:

[saigon68]

12. Wonder if this Guys Testicles, "Tightened UP" ?

[0007]

16. Like to see a photo of the man that used this Iraqi as a landing

block for electrical hook-ups. I'm sure this Iraqis has to catheterize himself to urinate these days.

[PJK]

13. Curious

What punishment would you have handed out? Just askin'

[CitrusLib]

14. Dishonorable discharge and 20 years at Abu Ghraib for starters.

;-) Thanks for playing.

[tainowarrior]

2. well, if she got 3 years of justice,

then here's hoping a prisoner on the inside enacts justice in his own way.

Please, no "eye for an eye makes the world go blind" comments. The justice system failed. Let's see if convicts can enact justice for those Iraqis, and for all of us who demanded she get more.

Put her in the cell with members of the prison Muslim group. THAT would be justice.

[bleedingheart]

4. that is even more barbaric....

if we want to be models for a democratic society we can't advocate prison abuse in any form.


What we are doing to the Iraqis is wrong
and
Ms. England's sentence is too light and therefore wrong
but
compounding two wrongs with another wrong isn't going to make us any better.

[WildClarySage]

8. Couldn't have said it better. I totally agree!

[tainowarrior]

15. I'm not so

naive as to think that it is possible to reach a perfect society in which perfect justice is dispensed. I'm not advocating prison abuse. I'm simply stating what would occur to her. I'll compromise with you in saying that I hope she does get that type of justice, but I'm not out there with a bullhorn advocating for it.

Let's put it this way: I won't shed a tear for Ms. England. I reserve those tears for the families in Iraq that lost loved ones under this war, and for the thousands of Iraqis that will die of depleted-uranium causes.

[AlCzervik]

3. Well the Iraqi's are going to be very mad when they find out that a

soldier who beat a detainee who later dies from that beating only got 4 months. The whole thing is a travesty.

[sabra]

5. give the guy a break he was 'frustrated'....

major :sarcasm:

[architect359]

6. No justice

There simply isn't any justice anymore. Here is another example that will alienate us from the world. How anyone else can listen to us with a straight face when we spout about truth and justice, I don't know. We protect our own to the detriment of all else. Sometimes I wonder if there is another level of machination at work - we seem to WANT to isolate ourselves from the world; any time we want to interact with the rest of humanity is to either take something for our own use or to inflict war...

The Iraqis are RIGHT! If she had done this to a fellow American, there would be no way that she's get 3 years. No way.

Bah!

[rodeodance]

7. the travesty is that the big guys are still in place -and getting promoted

[rodeodance]

9. the little people are the scrapcoats. And more punishment for them will

not solve the bigger problem that this is still going on.

[ninkasi]

19. Exactly!

The fact that the higher ups, from Gonzalez, to Rumsfeld, to the Chimp, and the high ranking military officers are the ones who should be facing severe penalties. Iraqis know full well the hypocrisy of the Bush administration in routinely pontificating to other countries about human rights violations, while committing the same acts themselves.

We have created this mess ourselves, beginning with the "Shock and Awe", which killed thousands of innocent women, children, and the elderly, and going on to what amounts to group punishments of entire cities. We have taken women and children hostage, in an attempt to get their male family members to turn themselves in.

One reason for their disgust at Ms. England's sentence is that a woman was photographed humiliating Iraqi men. The country has a deep tradition of modesty, and for many of the unfortunate men she treated with such disrespect, the knowledge that their pictures have been seen worldwide only adds fuel to their already burning anger and rage.

It's far past time to go after the ones who ordered the torture and abuse. They became war criminals by their actions, and their orders.

[Hobarticus]

10. So, what do you think will happen to the next American the resistance

gets their hands on?

Sadly, whoever that unfortunate soul is will pay for Lynndie's slap on the wrist.

Great job, military justice system. Way to back up your troops in the field.

[2Design]

11. rumsfeld not being in jail is the outrage - they have gone

after the part time soldiers for everything - to be killed and be the fall guys for a corupt government

[Mugsy]

17. England is obvious example of military recruiting crimes.

Not to sound too harsh, but I think anyone looking at a photo of Pvt. Lynndie England:



...can tell she is likely mentally deficient (the perfect soldier, a Forrest Gump, too dumb to ask questions). Does this look like a "Master Mind" to anyone?

If you missed it, I recommend finding a copy of the September issue of Vanity Fair (with Jennifer Aniston on the cover) and read "The Recruiters' War" (review), about military recruiters routinely enlisting young people that do not meet the legal requirements to be a soldier because they are so desperate to meet their quotas.

[Laughing Mirror]

20. While the glowing Sabrina Harman thumbs up in front of a corpse

got only six months. I guess she was not only prettier, but smarter. Who killed the guy on ice anyway? Could it have been Sabrina? Who? Did that murderer ever get sentenced?

[0007]

18. Ms England will be looking behind her and in dark closets for

the rest of her god given life.

Perhaps she may turn her life around and perform selfless service for the down trodden Iraqis for the rest of her live, who knows?

Maybe twenty five years from now she'll be known as Mother Lynndie the mother that wears the golden burka.