Link to the Future

This post by Zombyboy (or one of his co-bloggers) doesn't exist yet, but it's almost certainly worth reading. CLICK.

Please do check it out once they've gotten around to posting it.

Update: See, I told you. And Zombyboy responds.

Abu Ghraib News

On OpinionJournal, Dorothy Rabinowitz reports on evidence released in Lynndie England's Article 32 hearing on the Abu Ghraib abuses. Based on England's prior statements, it appears that those who attempted to blame the abuses on the Bush administration were (surprise, surprise) making unsupported assertions. Excerpt:

This was a decidedly different explanation from the one she initially gave, according to the Army investigator who first confronted her with the photographs. Months before those were made public, investigator Paul Arthur testified at the recent Article 32 hearing, Pfc. England had told him that the photos of her humiliating the naked prisoners had been taken just in order to have some fun--just some fooling around while on the night shift. There was no mention of orders from higher-ups. The just-following-orders defense would come later--the explanation offered not only by Lynndie England but most of the other six members of the 372nd Military Police Company facing serious prison if convicted.

It was a defense instantly embraced by every antiwar, anti-administration organ in the nation. Those at the topmost levels of the military including Donald Rumsfeld and the president himself, it was argued, were in one way or another responsible for torments inflicted on the prisoners--torments that must have been designed, or at the least suggested, by superior officers high in the chain of command. Editorial writers and other commentators professed astonishment that anyone could believe ordinary soldiers might be moved to commit acts of sadism and terrorization all on their own. They had to have been directed to do so, we were assured by all quarters of progressive and enlightened opinion; there could be no other explanation. A strange argument, that, but an inevitable and determined one--particularly for the legions of antiwar warriors who saw at once that in the Abu Ghraib story they had struck gold.

Dog bites man once again.

By the way, I think my posting on this poor, neglected blog should be returning to a less-sporadic pace. My workload seems to be reverting to normal. I also intend to spend more time on the ever-improving Blogs around the World page.

In any event, thanks for visiting.