MAL GESTE

I suspect I am insufficiently horrified by our treatment of Iraqi prisoners. So far, it looks like garden-variety nastiness of the sort that's common in our state-side prisons. I mean, I haven't heard we were lopping of digits with tin snips, at least not yet.

I am, however, ashamed (I have that naive wish to be on the team of the good guys), angry (what does it take to get fired from the Bush administration?) and feeling a more than a little bit gyped. The stuff I've seen so far is so embarrassingly juvenile, so banally peverse, and so appallingly amateurish. What's all this I've heard about our professional military? Sure, war is hell and interrogations are never pretty, but dog chains and ladies' underpants?

I'd like to think that if Bobby the Terrorist wouldn't give up the location of the ticking bomb, I could find it in myself to knee-cap him. But I wouldn't waste time tickling his wiener.

The abuse photos are so compelling that some of Taguba's other findings aren't getting much press, like the large number of escapes, the lack of even counting prisioners regularly, the failure to install perimeter lights, and the gross understaffed and undersupplied police battalion. Blooming amateur hour.

I propose:
1. Writs of Torture.
Sweeping things under the carpet just doesn't work. Let's require Writs of Torture to at least make sure that the torturer knows that hell what he's doing.
2. More Gays in the Military.
Clearly, the closet cases in military intelligence aren't getting the job done. I suspect a few queens, bears, and chicken hawks would be more effective.
3. A Highly Trained Joy Division.
Year-long deployments call for a sensible Sexual Gratification policy. Then maybe our troops can leave the locals alone.

Pardon my dark mood but these are dark days.