"isolated incident"

[glatt]

I read this thread before I opened the link, and I fully expected to see more photos of guards inside a prison, abusing prisoners.

I don't think that's what these pictures show. I think the pictures are of the nighttime raids performed by the US military on suspected insurgents' homes. I remember at the time when reading of those raids that I was concerned they would backfire. That a lot of innocent people were having their homes entered and that there was a growing animosity against the US military for these raids. At the time I viewed it as a possible strategic blunder, not as abuse. After seeing these pictures, I still think that it doesn't rise to the level of abuse. But I think history proves it was a blunder, just as the entire war was a blunder.

If I recall correctly, informants would tip off the military that a particular house contained insurgnets. We would go in and interrogate the suspects. Pictures were taken to keep track of the different players. Clearly some souvenir pictures were taken here. It's immature, but I don't think it's abuse.

These photos were clearly taken in "the field." The soldiers are fully outfitted with armor, helmets, and rifles. The prison guards in the other pictures were in t-shirts.

I am much more willing to forgive events that happen in the battlefield than events that happen in a controled environment like a prison. In Gitmo and Abu Grhiab the US military has time to write memos on prisoner treatment. Any abuse there was planned out and pre-meditated. In the field, the soldiers are all excited from battle, and much more likely to do questionable things in the heat of the moment. I'm much more likely to forgive the latter.