The America I Know...

Bush claims the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib "does not represent the America that I know." Douglas Allen, writing on Alternet, says it a wholly expected reflection of today's USA:

"The physical abuse by United States guards of prisoners incarcerated in United States jails is so well known and widespread that it is a running, national joke. Watch any sitcom long enough, and sooner or later, someone will make a threat about someone going to prison and having to "do the laundry of a 300-pound cellmate named Bubba."

... The humiliation of individuals has become an American obsession; it is, in fact, the growing American pastime, surpassing football and baseball as our national sport...

How we treat prisoners under our control is indicative of who we are. It is essential to our very humanity. It is how we are defined, both by ourselves, and by others who either observe or interact with us. Christian doctrine – and the right insists, with pounded breast, that we are a Christian nation – teaches in Matthew 25:40 that "the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." That, again according to New Testament Christian doctrine, is how we are to be judged."

(NB: For further examples of willful abuse and humiliation of individuals, try posting an anti-war comment at IraqTheModel.)