The U.S. Appointed Interim Government In Iraq Is Now Pissed At Us

Yeah, we can safely say the hearts and minds battle in Iraq has been lost, buried and kicked in the nuts over the prison abuse scandal. Now they're comparing us to Saddam...

Arab television stations led their news broadcasts today with the photographs.

One network said the pictures were evidence of the "immoral practices" of American forces.

Many Arabs are already angry about the US-led occupation of Iraq and violence has being worsening in the country in recent months.

"This will increase the sense of dissatisfaction among Iraqis toward the Americans," said a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, Mahmoud Othman.

"The resistance people will try to make use of such painful incidents."

Mr Othman, whose council is the interim governing authority of Iraq appointed by the US, added: "This is a shame on the Americans. We used to criticise Saddam (Hussein) regime regarding the beating of detained people."

On a much lesser scale, Hoffmania! gave an example of troops posing for pictures with prisoners back in July. What happened in that prison is simply put: horrible.

Outside of the individuals - not the entire Army, but the individuals who did this - the blame can also go to the spectator-sport mindset our government put on this whole war since day one. I remember vividly wingnuts pumping their fists and screaming "YEAH! KICK THEIR ASS!" at their TVs when Shock and Awe got underway. We saw the video-game brains at work, and you can bet some of the troops were whipped up into a feeding frenzy as they took over the country.

It's one thing to win. It's something of the polar opposite to humiliate. This is one big fat ugly stain...another, like it or not, on Bush's watch.