You've apparently been watching too much "Oz" on HBO. The cadre of prison officials you refer to is called a "SORT team". And no, they do not routinely "thump his ass but good" just for kicks and grins if they want to stay out of a disciplinary hearing and/or prison themselves.
Stripping prisoners and taking pictures of them in degrading poses grossly violates the rules of war, the rules of human decency, and the UCMJ. I have a feeling that each of these goon guards are going to feel the wrath of all three very soon in their military careers.
We do not know the rap sheet on the Iraqi prisoners, but one thing is for sure, they are not in the prison for writing a bad check, they're trained killers captured on the battle field while trying to kill our Soldiers or planning terrorist attacks on our troops.
They also fall under the protection of the Geneva Convention, which these US Army jailers violated in spades by abusing them. And the problem with our violating the Convention is that the enemy now has perfect justification to do the same thing to OUR prisoners. Just wait for the first photos of our POWs being abused to hit Al Jazeerah.
Nothing I have seen so far can be labeled torture, just humiliation.
You're joking, I hope. EVERYTHING I have seen in the photos so far falls under that description.
The Geneva Conventions were violated when 60 Minutes II broadcasted the photo's, until then, there was no humiliation shown to the public or the world
Uh, 60 Minutes II is not a governmental organization, and as such is not subject to the Convention.
The principles of the Geneva Convention still apply, whether you are legally subject to them or not.
You need to do something about that -- uh -- speech impairment.
I agree that the pictures were a complete violation, my argument is that what I have seen so far is not torture. The smiling faces of the couple of guards that disgusts me, and of course the fact that they posed for pictures to begin with