Prisoner Abuse = Fewer Casualties?

I think its too soon to make such a generalization. There were many days in April when no or only one American was killed over there. So far in May, it looks like the average is about 5 a day. Between April 27th, when I first looked it up and May 12th (the most recent day they give statistics for), 97 Americans have died in Iraq (not counting Berg).

I would think that any possible gain to be had in terms of lower fatalities would be counter-balanced by public outcry on both the national and international level. Besides, why would the revelation that we tortured Iraqui prisoners have a calming effect on the Iraqui population? They already think the worst of us, anyhow. The revelations about the treatment of prisoners would only confirm the Iraqui people in their beliefs regarding the wickedness of the US.

Why WOUD we have taken pictures of us torturing prisoners? Its a good question. I don't think those pictures were taken to intimidate the Iraqui people, however. There's too great a danger of the opposite effect occuring. We have the Berg incident as proof of that. (I know, I know, there's controversy over Berg, but so far nothing else has been proved)