It does too smear the entire effort
Warning: Hard left turn ahead. Hang on, or jump off now.

As a visual journalist, I've looked at a lot of really disturbing images, and have been party to decisions whether to run those images or not. The incoming photo wire shows us everything, and it's up to the editors to decide what to show you. In a run of really disturbing images from the last three years of my journalism career, one sticks out in my mind. It was from the Liberia scuffle last year, the mini-civil war that erupted. It was a picture of a skinny black man, clad only in his underwear, being worked over by uniformed members of the opposition. His face showed the fear and the humiliation in clear detail. I was very shaken up by what I saw -- I saw pictures of wars overseas every day, but this one had particular impact. They weren't just trying to hurt this guy. They were cutting him down to his very soul, and then slashing through it. It chilled me to the bone to believe that people could be that evil to other people, here in our supposedly enlightened age.

But that was Liberia. Thankfully, I live in a country that's above performing such humiliation to its enemies.

Right?

Condoleeza Rice, one of the few remaining members of the Bush Administration for whom I still have a great deal of respect -- and yeah, it's waning, too -- said this of the atrocities allegedly committed by U.S. military officials minding the Abu Ghraib internment camp in Iraq: "The actions of a few should not overshadow the many good works that are being done."

I'm sorry, Ms. Rice. I've been a strong defender of yours for nearly three years now. But you could not be more wrong.

These actions do overshadow whatever good we've allegedly done in Iraq. These actions lower us to the level of Saddam Hussein himself. We were on shaky ground, anyway, frankly. Our job was to go over there and depose Saddam and find those elusive weapons of mass destruction. We should be happy with our 1-for-2 and get the hell out. We shoudl leave so we don't waste any more American lives, and we should leave before any more crap like Abu Ghraib happens again.

High-ranking U.S. officials have been quick and strong in decrying the alleged abuses. But is that message getting through to the Arab world? You think they're broadcasting that part on al-Jazeera? Let's say the message is getting through (the Arab press is known for its objectivity and fairness, right?); one has to guess that probably something is being lost in the translation. I doubt know if there's an Arabic word for "isolated incident,"
especially not when something of this gravity is involved.

I was very much in favor of getting the job done, getting some sort of stable government set up in Iraq and getting out by June 30. Of course, I keep hearing this "June 30" date being bandied about, and I can't help but notice nobody's specifying June 30 of what year. Screw June 30. It's time to get out now, before any more stupidity occurs, before any more people die.

Look at it this way: If a few hundred thousand Iraqis swooped in and took over our shores and installed some benevolent white guy who was sympathetic to the cause as president, and then they decided to hang around for a while after that and break a few more things just to make sure we got the message that a Muslim theocracy was the best form of government ever invented, would you pick up arms against them? You'd be an "insurgent," of course, if you did. And let's say a few thousand Mexicans and Canadians decided to come in and help you out against those occupiers. Surely you'd welcome their help. But they'd be "insurgents" too, and their presence would be used as an argument that "well, we've got the Americans under control; it's these damn Mexicans and Canadians who are coming in here causing problems. The Americans welcome us with open arms."

And let's say that, despite all the good they've done in convincing us that a Muslim theocracy was the best way, some renegade Iraqi unit decided to take a few American "insurgents" prisoner and strip them down to nothing and slap hoods over their heads, and then take pictures.

If they don't like us on the "Arab street," wherever that is, we've sure as hell earned it.

Please feel free to try to convince me I'm wrong on this one. I understand what I'm saying is extreme, and I understand what I'm saying undercuts my previously stated support for our troops. And for God's sake, don't give me any crap about how "they" killed 3,000 of our innocent souls on Sept. 11, 2001. "They," the Iraqis, didn't have a goddamn thing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks. Don't cheapen the deaths of the Sept. 11 victims by saying that gave us an excuse to invade a country just because we had to bomb somebody. And sure as hell don't cheapen the deaths of the Sept. 11 victims by suggesting it's OK for Americans to become terrorists themselves.

I do support the guys who are over there just following orders and trying to get a job done and trying to leave a good impression of the United States.

And I'm sure someone, years down the road, will say that the people who committed these atrocities were just "following orders."

If that's the case, whoever gave those orders should face the ultimate punishment.

War is indeed hell. And it apparently brings out the worst in military units which are being sold to the world as being virtuous and noble.

It's time to end it. Now.