Joe Kelley said, in this post
On the subject of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, I have an observation.He then went on to make a humorous correlation between the actions of congressmen who leave small town life for the glitz of D.C. and the actions of the troops in Abu Ghraib prison.Many years ago, I read a behavioral theory on human behavior in foreign environments. The conclusion was that outside of familiar environments, humans had a inclination to behave in a foreign manner.
I look back over my life, and I do remember there bein' times when I was away from the people I knew, surrounded by people that had no preconceptions of what type of person I was and who were not likely to ever blab about my actions to my mother. I remember bein' in the Army. Yes, maybe I was a bit wilder durin' those days. I dang sure know that I drank more durin' my four years in the Army than the rest of my life combined. But still, I never lost touch with humanity. I never intentionally tried to injure anyone without provocation. I never tried to maliciously humiliate anyone.
Then again, I also recognize the mindset that has consumed the American spirit with regard to the incidents of 9/11 and our hatred of those who were responsible for such act. How often have I seen generalizations about Islamics on the blogs of people whose opinions I generally admire, callin' all Arabic people towel-heads and the like. While the acts committed in Abu Ghraib prison were vile. revoltin'. and disgustin', if you take into consideration: anti-Arabic sentiment; bein' so far from homen a war-time environment; and the peer pressure inherent in the brotherhood of the military, and there is some possible understandin' of how this might have happened. It still does not excuse it.
[UPDATE: Further enlightenment on where this situation fits into the grand scheme of the War on Terror over on Dean's World.]
Posted by notGeorge at May 14, 2004 09:08 AM