Obviously this torture situation over in Iraq is outrageous. The Bush Administration has completely lost control of it's agenda, its mission, and its military. But what you need to realize is that this torture in Iraq is NOT a new thing for the American military. Everywhere we go, every country we invade, every land we inhabit, natives of those lands are tortured. Have we so quickly forgotten about the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia? This is military training ground where, according to the Pentagon's own Inspector General, U.S. military officers where training foreign officers in "methods of torture." As long ago as December 2002 the human rights group Amnesty International reported widespread human rights abuses by U.S. military personnel at prisons in Afghanistan (remember Afghanistan? I don't think the President does!).

And let's not forget about the torture/abuse scandal that was rocking the U.S. military BEFORE those horrible pictures were aired on "60 Minutes." Less than a week before this Iraqi torture scandal broke, another torture story was making the cable and network news shows - more than 500 women serving in the Armed Forces have reported being raped and sexually assaulted overseas in the past eighteen months. According to the Veteran's Administration, nearly one-third of all women who have ever served in the military have been raped, and 14% of them have been gang-raped. This too is torture, ladies and gentlemen. This too is systemic abuse. The sexual assault of our own troops by our own troops is horrific and disgusting.

Humiliation and degradation are are the tools of fascistic control. Never forget that.