Weak Excuses for Appalling Behavior

Now that photos of American soldiers abusing and humiliating Iraqi prisoners have been beamed all over the Arab world, to warm their hearts about American "liberators," the Army itself appears to be trying to explain the behavior away as a lack of "in-depth training."

Here's from the AP story: "The six U.S. soldiers facing courts-martial in connection with mistreatment of detainees at an Iraqi prison did not receive in-depth training on the Geneva Conventions, which govern the handling of captives, a military spokeswoman said Friday."

So, are you telling us that stripping prisoners naked and making them pose in sexually suggestive piles of flesh, while being jeered at by men and women guards, is something that your normal, ordinary American soldier just wouldn't necessarily associate as wrong, dammit, without "in-depth training in the Geneva Conventions"???

Bad, bad behavior leads to worse, worse propaganda against the U.S., and it will only get more damaging the more Bush's Army is seen to be trying to excuse this.