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Monday, December 1, 2008 12:00 AM

Sympathy for Charles Graner

No one from the Bush administration has been held accountable for torture. But the guard from Abu Ghraib prison is still behind bars, and his family wants to know why.

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  • Monday, December 1, 2008 06:05 PM

    Yeah, karma's a bitch.

    I don't believe in revenge, or an eye for an eye. On the other hand, when fate puts a low-life like Graner through a much milder form of the abuse he dished out, my lizard brain gets kind of happy about it.

    Sure Graner's being scapegoated. You join the military in any country and you are volunteering to suffer and die for the good of the team leaders (and only as circumstances allow, for the team). That's the reality of putting yourself under the power of an institution, and hence its leadership. (Pay attention, shareholders--this applies to you too.)

    As long as there are armies, there will be scapegoats like Graner. Not all of them will be sadists like him, though; save your sympathy for those who better deserve it.

    And in the meantime, if you don't like solitary confinement, fight against its use in any circumstance. And if you think going after Bush et al is worth the fight, go for it.

    (Good luck with that; a great many Americans share responsibility for the evils perpetrated by the Bush administration, having taken a lot of pleasure in the arrogance, threats and violence of their leaders when they were frightened after 9-11. Most of those who condoned the abuses in the past will choke a little on the hypocrisy of voicing righteous anger now.)

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