Posted on 05/05/2004 9:35:24 PM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
CUMBERLAND, Md. -- Mineral County resident Terrie England pressed her fingers to her lips when a reporter showed her a newspaper photo of her daughter smiling in front of what a caption said were nude Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
"Oh, my God," she said, her body stiffening as she sat on a cooler on the small stoop of her trailer in the rolling hills of eastern West Virginia
"I can't get over this," she said, taking a drag on her cigarette, during an interview by The Baltimore Sun.
Her daughter, Lynndie, is a member of the 372nd Military Police Company, based in Maryland. The prison detail from the unit has been disgraced in news reports across the world.
The Army said Monday that 14 of the 17 soldiers implicated in an investigation of abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison are from the 372nd. They face either criminal or administrative charges.
Lynndie England, who is from Fort Ashby, W.Va., has been reassigned to Fort Bragg, N.C., where she's being detained. It's unclear whether she'll face charges.
To the proud reservists and their families, the publication of the allegations -- that Iraqi prisoners were tormented and humiliated -- was like opening a dark, musty room that had long ago been sealed off.
Lynndie R. England, 21, a 2000 graduate of Frankfort High School, told her mother in January about potential problems at the Iraq prison.
She grew up in a trailer down a dirt road behind a saloon and a sheep farm in Fort Ashby, Mineral County, not far from Keyser.
England, a railroad worker's daughter who made honor roll at the high school, had enlisted in the 372nd for college money and the chance to widen her small-town horizons. In January, however, she gave her family the first inkling that something had gone woefully wrong.
"I just want you to know that there might be some trouble," she warned her mother in a phone call from Baghdad. "But I don't want you to worry."
Lynndie England said she was under orders to say no more. The military has told the family nothing; all the Englands know is that she has been detained, apparently in connection with the unit's alleged misconduct at the prison.
"Whether she's charged or not, I don't know," Terrie England said.
This was not supposed to be the fate of a girl who grew up hunting turkey or killing time with her sister at the local Dairy Dip, making wisecracks about the cars whizzing past.
"She wanted to see the world and go to college," said Terrie England, whose T-shirt bore a design of heart-shaped American flags. "Now the government turned their back on her, and everything's a big joke."
She held photos of her daughter in khakis, smiling atop a camel in Iraq.
At most, the 372nd's alleged abuses of prisoners were "stupid, kid things -- pranks," Terrie England said, her voice growing bitter. "And what the (Iraqis) do to our men and women are just? The rules of the Geneva Convention, does that apply to everybody or just us?"
Everyone had been proud of Lynndie England. A Wal-Mart in nearby LaVale displays her photo on its Wall of Honor. The Mineral County courthouse in Keyser posts her photograph and those of other local soldiers under a banner that says: "We're hometown proud."
Bill Nestor at Fort Ashby Farm and Garden Supply said he has heard a number of customers discussing the story.
"Everybody's thinking, where were their superior officers? Somebody had to be in charge."
Nestor said he doesn't know England or her family, but local residents question whether she's capable of abusing Iraqi detainees. "Everybody is in support of her and of her family," he said.
Emory Shriver of the local VFW post said he also doubts the veracity of some of the charges. "I just kind of thought it was a bunch of crap," he said. "I just thought it was propaganda."
Lynndie England had found purpose, and love, in the Army. She got engaged last year to a fellow member of the 372nd, Charles Graner, who appears with his arm around her in the newspaper photo.
Now, Lynndie England has been demoted from the rank of specialist to private first class. And when she calls home, she says frustratingly little.
Destiny Goin said the Army had trained her sister Lynndie for an administrative job, "a paper pusher." Instead, she wound up helping to guard 900 Iraqi prisoners of war in a sprawling, squalid compound near Baghdad.
"It's just unjust, is what it is," Goin said.
I looked up a brief citation on the infamous My Lai Incident which was much more serious, though the present situation has the potential for a similar effect on our war effort, if it is not handled very well.:
My Lai incident , in the Vietnam War, a massacre of Vietnamese civilians by U.S. soldiers. On Mar. 16, 1968, a unit of the U.S. army Americal division, led by Lt. William L. Calley, invaded the South Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai (more correctly, Son My), an alleged Viet Cong stronghold. In the course of combat operations, unarmed civilians, including women and children, were shot to death (the final army estimate for the number killed was 347). The incident remained unknown to the American public until the autumn of 1969, when a series of letters by a former soldier to government officials forced the army to take action. Several soldiers and veterans were charged with murder, and a number of officers were accused of dereliction of duty for covering up the incident. Special investigations by the U.S. army and the House of Representatives concluded that a massacre had in fact taken place. Of the many soldiers originally charged, only five were court-martialed, and one, Lt. Calley, convicted. On Mar. 29, 1971, he was found guilty of the premeditated murder of at least twenty-two Vietnamese civilians and sentenced to life imprisonment. His sentence was later reduced to 10 years, and in Sept., 1974, a federal district court overturned the conviction and Calley was released. The My Lai incident aroused widespread controversy and contributed to growing disillusionment in the United States with the Vietnam War. The U.S. army formally released a report on its investigation of the incident in Nov., 1974. In 1998 three U.S. soldiers saved Vietnamese civilians during the massacre were honored with the Soldier's Medal.
As far as the soldiers, if Lt. Calley can be convicted of, "..the premeditated murder of at least twenty-two Vietnamese civilians.." and end up serving less than 4yrs, these soldiers won't be seeing much time, if any as the process unfolds.
It was wrong to do and dumb and even worse to photograph. The photograph aspect of this makes me doubt that Military Intellegence, Special Ops, CIA etc. had anything to do with the photos we see on the news. If they were to do things like this to break down prisoners by posing them and showing them the photos (I'm not saying they did) they would have kept close control of the photos.
It looks like the stupid stunts of bored young soldiers.
This was therefore being addressed months ago.
Release of the pictures recently was in no way necessary to expose the abuses or end the situation.
It was sedition to release and disseminate those photos.
I agree that it was, but we won't be seeing any prosecution on it. It may be we never learn who turned the photos over to the press. On the other hand, it may have to come out in a trial.
The freedom for women to wear an American soldier's uniform, bare limbs and face, dragging around Iraqi arab muslim men by dog leashes.
This is gonna stick. How can we sell Iraqis on our vision of *freedom* when it will forever be associated with female soldiers humiliating arab men?
This is incalculably damaging, in a culture where families will commit "honor killings" if a daughter is seen holding hands with a man.
If it wasn't a "religious world war" before, it's sure becoming one now, fast.
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