IlliniBob72 Posted May 1, 2004 Share Posted May 1, 2004 Did 60 Minutes do the right thing by running the story when they did? I am not calling for covering the story up by any means, but with a U.S. soldier in the hands of Iraqi insurgents, should they have held off on the story. I feel sad when I think about that unfortunate man and his family after those photos were released to the world. 60 Minutes may as well have signed his death warrant. Also, what do people think should be done to the soldiers involved in the torture? If their actions lead to more attacks and the murder of the soldier in captivity, should they be charged with capital crimes? It would be hard to prove that their actions directly led to any subsequent deaths. Whatever is done to them needs to be overwhelming. A dishonorable discharge will not prove to the world that the United States does not operate that way. Their actions have been so harmful to the United States that no punishment is too severe, IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlaSoxxJim Posted May 2, 2004 Share Posted May 2, 2004 I understand the concern for a captive soldier and of stepped up retaliation, but there is no way they could have not run the story. They could not have necessarily waited for a better time to air it as there is unlikely to be a good time to do so. I think they acted responsibly in airing the story. I can't comment on the punishment of the soldiers and officers involved because I'm still too outraged over the datails of the abuse that are as yet coming to light to even think about putting it into perspective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
israel4ever Posted May 2, 2004 Share Posted May 2, 2004 Isn't it the responsibility of news outlets like 60 Minutes to report news, not to create news? This story somewhat crosses that line. Sometimes it seems that people forget that we are AT WAR! I am not defending the torture of those Iraqis by any stretch of the imagination, but, I don't see how the US benefits by having such a story televised. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted May 2, 2004 Share Posted May 2, 2004 there never is a "good" time to air news like this, one could always find an excuse and say "do it later" and "later" never happens it needed to be reported Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
israel4ever Posted May 2, 2004 Share Posted May 2, 2004 Do you think that we, the American public, can receive too much information? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NUKE_CLEVELAND Posted May 2, 2004 Share Posted May 2, 2004 there never is a "good" time to air news like this, one could always find an excuse and say "do it later" and "later" never happens it needed to be reported Lightning has struck. I agree with you. I'm gonna steal a line from the movie "Rules of Engagement" We dont have the luxury of covering up our mistakes. We must air them...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Controlled Chaos Posted May 3, 2004 Share Posted May 3, 2004 I believe it should have been aired...I don't think they needed to show the pictures. We are at war....We know this will be twisted on Al Jazerra and will probably end up helping the terrorists in the long run...Whether it be with recruiting or just anti-american sentiment. I think a reprimand as punishment is appropriate. I think it was bad what they did and I don't agree with the soldiers at all. It was stupid and immature and they deserve to be punished, but war criminals they are not. They humiliated these prisoners. They didn't physically harm them. They made them stand around naked and pile on top oif each other...Inappropriate and Uncalled for?? YES! War crime?? NO!!!! I have read articles with people calling for jail time. Hell, I even had my friend tell me these acts were atrocious and they should all get 10 years? (Of course, he doesn't read anything and only uses lke CBS for his "news") I was like dude 10 years?? You don't even get 10 years for killing someone. Hell Jayson Williams admittedly shot a guy, tried to cover it up, tried to convince friends to cover it up and he probably won't even get 5 years. He'll be out in 2. What they made these prisoners do was wrong, but nothing compared to what they have done to us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Controlled Chaos Posted May 3, 2004 Share Posted May 3, 2004 British pics might be fake. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,118852,00.html I don't know anything factual about that picture of the man beaten to death. Do you? I haven't seen it anywhere else. Do you know if he was attacking the soldiers? Did he try to escape...was he fighting back? I don't know...Was he beat to death for fun? I don't know, but neither do you. The difference is I'm willing to give our guys the benefit of the doubt and you are ready to crucify every soldier over there. Yes there are some bad people as soliders...In fact it's where a lot of bad kids go to straighten out....BUT the majority of our men and women over there are good people and I support them. I believe attaching a man to electrical wires and having him stand on a box while there is water on the floor could be torture...It'd be a war crime if he fell off and happened to electrocute himself too. I read the wires weren't connected to anything and that they did it to scare him. While I don't agree with it, it is a BIG difference from what you accused them of. I'm guessing you read the same thing I did about the wires, but it wasn't conducive to your story of the, big bad mean American Soldier, so your version had him possibly falling and getting electrocuted. Either way...I think what the soldiers did was wrong and they should get reprimanded... As for reading the news wire....What reports SMASH my idea of them not being beaten?? You have shown one picture and I know nothing about it. All I know from "hot off the wire" is info straight from an Iraqi prisoner...and he says nothing about being beaten. He just complains about having to be stripped once for about 15 minutes. I'm not so sure my idea was SMASHED. I know you would like to SMASH every idea that is positive about this war and glorify every thing that is negative You are as left as they come and I will not waste my time arguing or debating with you as we will NEVER see eye to eye. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LowerCaseRepublican Posted May 3, 2004 Share Posted May 3, 2004 British pics might be fake. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,118852,00.html I don't know anything factual about that picture of the man beaten to death. Do you? I haven't seen it anywhere else. Do you know if he was attacking the soldiers? Did he try to escape...was he fighting back? I don't know...Was he beat to death for fun? I don't know, but neither do you. The difference is I'm willing to give our guys the benefit of the doubt and you are ready to crucify every soldier over there. Yes there are some bad people as soliders...In fact it's where a lot of bad kids go to straighten out....BUT the majority of our men and women over there are good people and I support them. I read the wires weren't connected to anything and that they did it to scare him. While I don't agree with it, it is a BIG difference from what you accused them of. I'm guessing you read the same thing I did about the wires, but it wasn't conducive to your story of the, big bad mean American Soldier, so your version had him possibly falling and getting electrocuted. Either way...I think what the soldiers did was wrong and they should get reprimanded... As for reading the news wire....What reports SMASH my idea of them not being beaten?? You have shown one picture and I know nothing about it. All I know from "hot off the wire" is info straight from an Iraqi prisoner...and he says nothing about being beaten. He just complains about having to be stripped once for about 15 minutes. I'm not so sure my idea was SMASHED. I know you would like to SMASH every idea that is positive about this war and glorify every thing that is negative You are as left as they come and I will not waste my time arguing or debating with you as we will NEVER see eye to eye. The British government said they were fakes. Maybe they just don't want a scandal breaking out? Let's face it, this war was not good foreign policy and the administration has been wanting to invade since before Sept. 11. It was shortsighted, moronic policy and misappropriation of troop efforts. Governments have a tendancy to lie when they want something to go a certain way (see: Operation Northwoods, Gulf of Tonkin, the Pearl Harbor documents saying FDR knew of the attack et al.) Read the New Yorker story that I posted...link is in my previous post. A fifty-three-page report, obtained by The New Yorker, written by Major General Antonio M. Taguba and not meant for public release, was completed in late February. Its conclusions about the institutional failures of the Army prison system were devastating. Specifically, Taguba found that between October and December of 2003 there were numerous instances of “sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses” at Abu Ghraib. This systematic and illegal abuse of detainees, Taguba reported, was perpetrated by soldiers of the 372nd Military Police Company, and also by members of the American intelligence community. (The 372nd was attached to the 320th M.P. Battalion, which reported to Karpinski’s brigade headquarters.) Taguba’s report listed some of the wrongdoing: Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee. There was stunning evidence to support the allegations, Taguba added—“detailed witness statements and the discovery of extremely graphic photographic evidence.” Photographs and videos taken by the soldiers as the abuses were happening were not included in his report, Taguba said, because of their “extremely sensitive nature.” To say that Bush is a conservative and fighting this war is an oxymoron. It is one thing to have conservative beliefs but Bush is the antithesis to the conservative movement. And abuse of Iraqi prisoners that sparked worldwide condemnation may have been ordered by US military intelligence to extract information from the captives, and was possibly more cruel than officially acknowledged, The New Yorker magazine and Britain's daily Guardian reported on Saturday. Seymour Hersh, investigative reporter for The New Yorker, said that Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick, one of six US military policemen accused of humiliating Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Gharib prison outside Baghdad, wrote home in January that he had "questioned some of the things" he saw inside the prison, but that "the answer I got was, 'This is how military intelligence wants it done'." So, the evidence coming forth that the torture was an order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwsox Posted May 3, 2004 Share Posted May 3, 2004 Lightning has struck. I agree with you. I'm gonna steal a line from the movie "Rules of Engagement" I thank you for your comment and I love your qute, so totally apropos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted May 3, 2004 Share Posted May 3, 2004 British pics might be fake. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,118852,00.html I don't know anything factual about that picture of the man beaten to death. Do you? I haven't seen it anywhere else. Do you know if he was attacking the soldiers? Did he try to escape...was he fighting back? I don't know...Was he beat to death for fun? I don't know, but neither do you. The difference is I'm willing to give our guys the benefit of the doubt and you are ready to crucify every soldier over there. Yes there are some bad people as soliders...In fact it's where a lot of bad kids go to straighten out....BUT the majority of our men and women over there are good people and I support them. I read the wires weren't connected to anything and that they did it to scare him. While I don't agree with it, it is a BIG difference from what you accused them of. I'm guessing you read the same thing I did about the wires, but it wasn't conducive to your story of the, big bad mean American Soldier, so your version had him possibly falling and getting electrocuted. Either way...I think what the soldiers did was wrong and they should get reprimanded... As for reading the news wire....What reports SMASH my idea of them not being beaten?? You have shown one picture and I know nothing about it. All I know from "hot off the wire" is info straight from an Iraqi prisoner...and he says nothing about being beaten. He just complains about having to be stripped once for about 15 minutes. I'm not so sure my idea was SMASHED. I know you would like to SMASH every idea that is positive about this war and glorify every thing that is negative You are as left as they come and I will not waste my time arguing or debating with you as we will NEVER see eye to eye. More info on the fakes http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/03/...otos/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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