Lynndie England Gives Birth

Ms. England, you may recall, is the young woman at the heart of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal (the lady with the leash and dozens of embarrassing phots of her engaging in sex at the prison in front of prisoners).

A lot of unkind thoughts ran through my mind when I saw the story, but I also feel she's as much of a victim herself as the military has chosen to victimize both the soldiers and the prisoners. Our government condoned, perhaps insisted on the disgusting treatmnt and brutality shown there. So let me turn this around.

I have a wish for Ms. England and her baby. I hope the baby never experiences either what the prisoners of Abu Ghraib suffered or the situation into which Ms. England found herself placed. I also hope this child knows more humanity than Ms. England showed toward the prisoners. One day, I suspect this child may have questions about his mother's role and with that, I hope Ms. England has appropriate answers.

Yet on that last point I wish the same thing for Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Bush. They will never admit their culpability in this, so it may be too much to hope that Ms. England can. These men have enjoyed wealth, privilege and the finest of educations and yet none of that prepared them to be human in the face of war or to show real leadership rather than brutality and force, masqueraded by spin to call it "liberation" and "protection".