[PornoDoggy]

Well ... you asked for it ...

Not sure about the calls for Rumsfeld's resignation over this issue. I thought it was grossly premature until I listened to his testimony before both the Senate and House Friday (gotta love C-SPAN radio on the net). After listening to his testimony I went from strongly opposed to somewhat in favor. Yes, there are legal (Courts-Martial) issues about what flows up the chain of command. There are also military regulations that require notification of "god and everybody" when any sort of incident takes place that "reflects badly on the United States" - and there is no way in hell those photos didn't fall into that category. Something doesn't smell right about his explanations and excuses. BTW, I say that based on 10 years worth of experience with military regulations, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and the flow of information up and down the chain of command, not as a political liberal.

I think the lid is just barely off this barrel. There are similar allegations in Afghanistan, and at other prisons in Iraq. Some pictures released yesterday morning apparently show a completely new cast of characters from a completely different unit. I don't think you can accept as absolute truth the excuses offered by the accused (that military intelligence (MI) WANTED them to do these things, including the photos) or by former Iraqi detainees (that MI functionaries used the pictures as part of interrogations) - but I don't think you can completely discount them, either.

Some of the problems here are completely and inherently military - multiple chains of commands with different missions don't always "work and play well with others" - and would have occurred regardless of when or where. Other problems (questions), however, relate specifically to Iraq. This may be in fact related to the fact that the Administration didn't have a fucking plan for what to do with Iraq once they got it. It is very likely that some of the chain of command problems are derived from the fact that inadequate boots have been and continue to be on the ground to properly occupy Iraq.

This is a big deal. There are some serious systemic problems that this exposes, IMHO. I don't think this is the actions of a few malcontents and incompetents. I think there already is and will continue to be is a deliberate attempt by the Administration (you can already hear their apologists echoing these sentiments, if not just repeating what they've said verbatim) to hang a bunch of privates and non-commissioned officers and consider themselves done.