Abu Ghraib - Business as usual

As the abuses at Abu Ghraib became global common knowledge you could practically hear the wheels of the White House spin machine changing up into a higher gear. Administration mouthpieces worked overtime to denounce the few bad apples that had sullied the supposedly impeccable reputation of the US military.
When those same bad apples were put on trial for their actions the excuses and comparisons made to try and justify what occurred where many, varied, and in some cases downright crazy. Justin Raimondo's article The Scapegoat is a good primer on the subject. Charles Graner, the supposed 'ringleader' of the Abu Ghraib abusers probably should have pled insanity because after all he was having sex with Lynddie England which, in itself, is proof that he is completely deranged.
If William Calley was released after serving just 3.5 years of a life sentence imposed on him for the massacre of 109 Vietnamese civilians in My Lai what expectations should we have for justice in US military courts in regard to Abu Ghraib? The answer if you haven't worked it out is NONE. They will hand down what appear to be stiff penalties and then either pardon them, change the law(my money is on this), or just release them regardless of the law.
US legal 'scholars' are already working at changing the legal view of the 'just obeying orders' defense as can be read in a paper entitled Defense of Superior Orders before Military Commissions by James B. Insco. A revealing sentence in the conclusion of this paper states;

The Bush Administration now possesses a valuable opportunity to influence the development of customary international law. The United States should take the lead in annunciating the defense of superior orders under international law by providing it to defendants before military commissions.

I guess we all want the Bush administration to be taking the lead when it comes to international law. The hypocrisy of refusing to sign up to the International Criminal Court and then thinking you have the right to be writing/influencing international law boggles the mind.
To understand why I gave this article the title I did you need to view the documentary Torture Inc. Americas Brutal Prisons which demonstrates that the torture and abuse of prisoners is widespread within the US prison system. As anyone with an IQ over 80 must realise if they treat their own prisoners this way then how must they treat their prisoners in Iraq and the other prisoners of the war on terror. View Torture Inc. Americas Brutal Prisons online by clicking here.

Tags: terrorism, Abu Ghraib, US, torture, Iraq