link from Kalinakka at table talk:
Ney says Iraq prison abuse hearing would hurt morale
An upcoming Senate hearing on Iraq prisoner abuse will hurt troop morale and benefit America's enemies, an Ohio Republican said Wednesday.
"The last thing our nation needs now is for others to inflame this hatred by providing fodder and sound bites for our enemies," said Rep. Robert Ney of St. Clairsville.
... snip ...
A Senate hearing likely would turn into a media event where both Republicans and Democrats posture to score political points, he said. Instead, the Pentagon should investigate the incidents and soldiers and contractors who mistreated prisoners should face a court-martial or be prosecuted in court.
"I think we need to trust that Secretary Rumsfeld will do a top-to-bottom look at this," Ney said.
And the outrage over American abuses is biased, Ney said. When an Iraqi mob murdered, burned and hung American contractors in March in Fallujah, he said he saw no similar reaction.
"Where was this collective world outrage when the mass graves of Saddam Hussein's regime were uncovered?" Ney asked.
this is just indefensible. publicly owning up to what those assholes did over there is the *ONLY* and i mean *ONLY* acceptable response there is. it is neither good nor wise to present the image to the world that all we want to do is cover this up. by hiding behind closed doors and minimizing what happened, we endanger other soldiers who are completely innocent of this heinous behavior. that's going to hurt troop morale more than forcing them to acknowledge that some of their own are war criminals. we also don't want to send the message one can get away with sexually abusing and torturing prisoners of war.
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