Sort of like the notion that one cannot ever admit that a leadership one supports had made foolish and grievous mistakes, cannot learn from such mistakes, and cannot correct them. And, yes, Miers was a brilliant choice done in by yet another anti-W cabal. They seem to be proliferating, don’t they?

Luther and Terrye are absolutely right.

What you have given us are six examples of people who mistreated prisoners. Worse goes on nearly every day in every prison in the world.

Of the two links you provided, one seems to be dead while the worst part of Taguba’s report says exactly the following:

I find that the intentional abuse of detainees by military police personnel included the following acts:

a. (S) Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet;

b. (S) Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees;

c. (S) Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing;

d. (S) Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time;

e. (S) Forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s underwear;

f. (S) Forcing groups of male detainees to

masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped;

g. (S) Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them;

h. (S) Positioning a naked detainee on a

MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and

attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture;

i. (S) Writing “I am a Rapest” (sic) on

the leg of a detainee alleged to have forcibly raped a 15-year old fellow detainee, and then

photographing him naked;

j. (S) Placing a dog chain or strap around

a naked detainee’s neck and having a female

Soldier pose for a picture;

k. (S) A male MP guard having sex with a

female detainee;

l. (S) Using military working dogs

(without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten

detainees, and in at least one case biting and

severely injuring a detainee;

m. (S) Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees.

(ANNEXES 25 and 26)

…

8. (U) In addition, several detainees also described the following acts of abuse, which

under the circumstances, I find credible based

on the clarity of their statements and

supporting evidence provided by other

witnesses

(ANNEX 26):

a. (U) Breaking chemical lights and pouring

the phosphoric liquid on detainees;

b. (U) Threatening detainees with a charged

9mm pistol;

c. (U) Pouring cold water on naked detainees;

d. (U) Beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair;

e. (U) Threatening male detainees with rape;

f. (U) Allowing a military police guard to

stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured

after being slammed against the wall in his cell;

g. (U) Sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick.

h. (U) Using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of

attack, and in one instance actually biting a

detainee.

All very heinous stuff and I’m very sorry that it occurred. But we’ve known about this for a long time, and none of it–I repeat, none–is “torture”. I notice that even you were able to admit that all the relevant parties were tried and found guilty.

By the organization being run by the Bush administration.

I’ll repeat Terrye’s guesses: I bet you have never been in the military. You have never worked in a jail. You have never guarded a prisoner, especially one who threw body fluids in your face.

I bet that’s right, too.

I expect you have very little experience with life “on the other side of the tracks”. I’m happy for you that your life has been so pampered, and I’m particularly glad you get to live as you tell us in the tonier parts of Dallas with the “right” people who “know” about Harriet Miers, but I’m afraid that like poor Andrew Sullivan your life experiences have left you entirely unqualified to judge what constitutes a “torture policy”.

While you may have convinced yourself that you are supporting the war, in fact by ignorantly repeating the “Bush torture policy” propaganda you are personally inflicting more damage than a raft of car bombs. Congratulations.

Not that I expect that thought to overcome the delicious frisson of self-righteousness you’re feeling these days.

The six examples you have given us are not examples of “torture”, they show no proof whatsoever of a “policy”, and no evidence that Bush or anyone he knows or even anyone they know had anything to do with it has been adduced.

I guess that’s three strikes. Thanks for playing.

Squared and cubed, as his followup post on “torture” demonstrates.

Now, please educate yourself on the facts. Specifically, what our military itself has said, and done, about acts of torture committed by their members: foolish, cruel, utterly useless acts that didn’t prevent any “ticking bombs” from going off, while giving kicks to a dozen or so badly-supervised morons.

Major General Antonio Taguba’s report http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/reports/2004/800-mp-bde.htm lists six suspects: Staff Sergeant Ivan (Chip) Frederick II, Specialist Charles A. Graner, Sergeant Javal Davis, Specialist Megan Ambuhl, Specialist Sabrina Harman, and Jeremy Sivits (now demoted to Private). A seventh suspect is Private Lynndie England, who became pregnant and was reassigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The six faced charges that include conspiracy, dereliction of duty, cruelty toward prisoners, maltreatment, assault, and indecent acts.

1) Specialist Charles Graner was found guilty on January 14, 2005 of all charges, including conspiracy to maltreat detainees, failing to protect detainees from abuse, cruelty, and maltreatment, as well as charges of assault, indecency, adultery, and obstruction of justice. On January 15, 2005, he was sentenced to ten years in federal prison.

2) Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick pled guilty on October 20, 2004 to conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees, assault and committing an indecent act in exchange for other charges being dropped. His abuses included making three prisoners masturbate. He also punched one prisoner so hard in the chest that he needed resuscitation. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, forfeiture of pay, a dishonorable discharge and a reduction in rank to private.

3) Jeremy Sivits was sentenced on May 19, 2004 by a special court-martial (less severe than “general”; confinement sentence limited to one year) to the maximum one-year sentence, in addition to being discharged for bad conduct and demoted, upon his plea of guilty.

4) Specialist Armin Cruz of the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion was sentenced on September 11, 2004 to eight months confinement, reduction in rank to private and a bad conduct discharge in exchange for his testimony against other soldiers.[6] (http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=939300&tw=wn_wire_story)

5) Sabrina Harman was sentenced on May 17, 2005 to six months in prison and a bad conduct discharge after being convicted on six of the seven counts. She had faced a maximum sentence of 5 years.

6) Megan Ambuhl was convicted on October 30, 2004, of dereliction of duty and sentenced to reduction in rank to private and loss of a half-month

Another hit job done on the woman by the press

Come to Dallas and talk to some folks here in the Park Cities, Bush and Cheney and Harriet’s old stomping grounds (I live a little over a mile from SMU). After I began asking around among people in Highland Park, I realized that Miers’ nomination is viewed as an embarrassment by the old-timers here. PS: this is ground zero of Bush Ranger/Pioneer country.

If you don’t want to take my word for it, then listen to fellow local Virginia Postrel, who’s better dialed in to the SMU/Dallas scene than I (her husband teaches at the Cox school of Business there, and no doubt knows my neighbor Berry Cox much better than I ever will). Read through the dozen or so Miers entries of hers linked at the bottom of her latest blog entry: http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/001934.html