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Dave said:
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britneyspearsatemyshorts said:
and i believe what will [separate] us from the thugs is we will punish those who did this, and not condone it.....



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And he's absolutely correct, and its a credit to the US military that it works like that.
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But the damage has been done. Dave TWB misses the point in my comment:
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Dave said:
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This story reads like the US have overthrown one tortuous regime and replaced it with another.



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and reads it as
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Dave the Wonder Boy said:
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You say there is no difference between the U.S. military occupation, and the murderous tyranny of Saddam. That is an infuriatingly partisan and anti-American distortion.



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Yes, it is both partisan and an anti-American distortion, but I don't say it. You've put up a strawman, offering an incorrect interpretation of what I've said for the purpose of furthering your own argument. Read it again. This story, about the torture of Iraqi nationals, does read like a torturous regime has been replaced by another - and this is what people in the Middle East are reading. The reality is no doubt different to how this is being played in the Middle Eastern press.
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And now go and read what I said to bsams in reponse to whether he asked if I really believed it. While the torture of prisoners is clearly systemic, I don't think its a government policy.




In your prior comments here, you clearly heap disproportionate condemnation on the U.S. for actions far less barbarous than what Iraqi resistance fighters and al Qaida terrorists inflict on U.S. civilians and soldiers. And ad-lib when called on it.

You can circumvent the truth all you like, but anyone who reads these two quotes of yours and mine (in the above post)can plainly see that you share the views of "the story".
"The story reads..."(which is shorthand for how the press distorts U.S. harrassment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, in the anti-American Arab, European and other global press, disproportionately labeling as "American atrocities" the renegade actions of a small pocket of U.S.soldiers, the exact number of soldiers and officers investigated of which detailed in the TIME cover story article I posted above. In all, less than 20, UNauthorized abuses, out of 135,000 U.S. troops currently in Iraq. Turned in by U.S. soldiers, court-martialed by U.S. soldiers, actions condemned and apologized for all the way up the chain of command, all the way to the President, by a special appearance on two Arab news networks, no less.)

"The story reads", as you say, yes.

But you also hold the U.S. to a higher standard, while infuriatingly alleging that because the U.S. is expected to do good things in Iraq or any country, that the good is not worthy of reporting, only the bad.

"The story reads" is your own unclear shorthand for "the Arab press spins it as...". I understand that now, but it was unclear to me in your earlier posted comment. But it's not a strawman argument on my part as you allege. It's your own shorthand lack of clarity.

And given how you feel that the Arab, and global, anti-American press should on principle spin it that way, because Americans are the representatives of democracy and espouse bringing these democratic principles to Iraq, and any abuses should be emphasized, and any progress and benevolent action should be ignored by the press and not reported (because, as you say, it's expected that America does these benevolent things. How can it be "expected" by people in the Arab world and elsewhere globally, if these benevolent and democratic-process American things are never reported, only the mis-steps? It's an infuriatingly distorted notion.)
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Given these stated views of yours, even after you've explained your views with clarification I still fail to see how I've misrepresented your views in some kind of alleged "strawman" argument.

If four cops in L.A. beat up a suspect, that doesn't undermine the criminal justice system in California. Those are the actions of four cops, not those of the legal system of California. And those cops are accountable before the California legal system for the laws they violated.

The soldiers in Iraq are similarly facing court-martial.
The disciplinary system in Iraq's military prisons are being completely overhauled.
Apologies have been exhaustively made at every level of the U.S. military and government.

Whether to say it as your personal opinion, or in a more veiled way as "the story", endorsing coverage of it in this way, as "American atrocities", in a twisted misrepresentation of what the U.S. is doing to democratize Iraq, that ignores all the good being done, it is still very partisan and distorted of you to say:
"This story reads like the US have overthrown one tortuous regime and replaced it with another."

That's not a "strawman argument", it's your own lack of clarity, and your own wordplay and circumnavigation of your previously stated views. Or perhaps just your not fully realized understanding of the full ramifications of covering "the story" in the manner you suggest.