The terribly tragic case of Lyndie England...

Traveling Soldier, More Love, Godspeed, and Top of the World...by one of the greatest country music bands and some of the greatest musicians of all time...Natalie Maines...Emily Robinson...and Marty McGwire:):):)...and the band -- other than Maximumsuck:):):) -- that I would most want to play at my wedding:):):)...The Dixie
Chicks:):):):):):)...

I was ESTATIC this morning when I heard the news on NPR:):):)...

Lyndie England's case declared a mistrial:):):)...

I have said from the first time I saw this story that there are so many multiple mitigating circumstances in this trial -- especially of Lyndie -- that justice would not be done if this 21-year-old does time...

In addition to the fact that not only is she 21 YEARS OLD, folks...and following orders of a commanding officer (as you can imagine ANY 21 YEAR OLD soldier would do)...

There are MANY, MANY mitigating circumstances in the cases of ALL of the Abu Grahib soldiers...

Andrew Sullivan...

Andrew Sullivan

...has followed this case for some time...and the level of confusion created, ultimately -- BY THE ADMINISTRATION...President Bush, his attorneys, Don Rumsfeld, and other major players -- in the open-ended definitions of torture and what was permissible interrogation techniques -- leaves MANY, MANY unanswered questions about where lines of culpability lie...

And the President has A LOT to answer on this matter...

I don't want to see the President or any of his staff to see any charges for ANY of the alleged crimes they have been accused of during this war...

It is important to note that they likely violated international law by sidestepping a U.N. resolution to go to war in Iraq and by sidestepping even U.N. Security council approval or even NATO leadership on this effort...

And the President can try to INTERPRET his way out of that one ALL HE WANTS...

And in the end, it's just ways to avoid dealing with the fact that he and his administration seriously bended, at the very least, and seriously broke, at most, SEVERAL IMPORTANT international and military laws and rules of engagement in both Abu Grahib and in the course of the law itself...

And I don't want to see ANY OF THEM face ANY ACTION for that...
I do have to say that it is QUITE IRONIC that the party of Iran-Contra (support for the Contras that I supported, by the way...at least in retrospect:):):)...I was like 12 when it happened:):):):):)...would TODAY be the party of law and order, CONVENIENTLY and ALWAYS ignoring all of the places where it commits and, in the case of Iran-Contra, PARDONS crimes:):):):):):)...

But the last thing that needs to happen to some 21 year old soldier who was following orders from folks higher than her who, as Charles Granger tells it, believed that THEY WERE WITHIN ORDERS/REASON OF HIGHER UPS, is that she should somehow face 11 years taken from her life...

And NOT ONE OF THE GODDAMN COWARDS in the Bush Administration HAS THE FUCKIN' BALLS to take some responsibility on her behalf...

I can't believe that those sons-a-bitches almost watched a 21-year-old girl take an 11-year-nosedive and NOT ONE OF THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS stepped up the fucking plate and said, "You know...when I think about it...we did blur the lines of what was permissible and what wasn't...and since we're the folks in charge in all (and one of us happens to be THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF, FOR GOODNESS FUCKING SAKES) MAYBE...just MAYBE we might have some responsibility to take on this one...

Fuckin' cowards...

Instead ALL OF THEM let a 21-year-old girl take one for the team...one...I'm sure...that she would NEVER see repaid...

WHAT A LOAD OF FUCKING BULLSHIT...FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition) in the EXTREME...

And good for this judge to FINALLY be one person in the goddamn military establishment to put this girl's life above all their own fucking careers...

Goddamn...

Lyndie England should be let free...and there should be WAY MORE than a trial of Charles Granger or whomever else to deal with what happened at Abu Grahib...

There needs to be a MUCH MORE INVOLVED DISCUSSION of the organizational features, attitudes, military culture -- including a basic training culture that basically COMPELS and BRAINWASHES young folks JUST LIKE LYNDIE ENGLAND to FOLLOW ORDERS IN EXACTLY THE MANNER SHE DID...without question...without challenge...without criticism...without anything but a "Yes sir...anything you say, sir" etc. that lead to this kind of stuff and FAR WORSE in almost EVERY WAR SINCE THE DAWN OF HUMANITY...

It is a little known open secret of warfare that terrible things happen in war...

And, yet again, I find myself agreeing with John Derbyshire of the National Review, that kids like Lyndie should neither be scapegoated nor sacraficed to this fact of warfare that needs to be dealt with constructively over time within the ENTIRE MILITARY SUPERSTRUCTURE, not on a case by case basis, as if it's more isolated than it really is, if we are ever going to make some headway on it...

And what keeps ALL OF THIS KIND OF BULLSHIT in place is the both the refusal of folks in positions of authority to talk about it openly...and A TERRIBLY HARSH AND CONTROLLING MILITARY CULTURE -- from basic training on -- and VERY HARSH SENTENCES that are typically handed down in military court-marshalls that keeps EVERYONE very self-interested and VERY QUIET...

Which keeps the whole goddamned mess in place...

Which is exactly what needs to be discussed and dealt with if ANYONE is SINCERELY interested in preventing this kind of thing in the future and not just in papering over its most recent scapegoat...

I, for one, am tired of the scapegoating...the silence...and the UTTER REFUSAL of folks with the most authority and who CLEARLY have some responsibility to take on this one keeping both their mouthes shut...

And simultaneously, selfishly and without remorse, openly calling for, developing legislation for, and enforcing the VERY KINDS OF HARSH PUNISHMENTS that MAINTAIN THIS SILENCE...

And the terribly tragic scapegoating of 21-year-old kids like Lyndie England...

The military is SUPPOSED to make men and women of the folks who escalate through its ranks...

But noone -- except for a lone military judge -- has the BALLS to speak honestly about what happens in warfare and what has happened and may still happen to 21-year-old Lyndie England...

I say ENOUGH OF THE DENIAL...

The military needs to FACE UP TO ITS BULLSHIT...and stop scapegoating individuals for what is a much bigger matter of the heart for just about EVERY SOLDIER who's ever risked their lives to protect our freedom...

Congratulations to Colonel James Pohl for having some of that kind of courage...

And here's to the American military engaging in one of it's most difficult missions yet...

To talk openly about itself...and to start cleaning up some of its messes...

Lyndie has plenty to take responsibility in this case...

And contrary to the UTTER BULLSHIT AND DENIAL voiced by one of the mothers in this case that the behavior of these soldiers reflected TOO MUCH IDEALISM (is there any end to the irony in the conservative case for military-style justice in America's civil life)...

It is QUITE CLEAR that these soldiers' behavior reflects a pretty serious FAILURE OF THEIR IDEALISM TO TAKE HOLD WHEN THEY NEEDED IT TO...

When we accept lower standards for our humanity rather than constantly striving for higher, more liberal -- meaning small l, meaning open society, open-heartedness, open-mindedness, open arms -- more AUTHENTICALLY progressive idealism...

Abu Grahib is the kind of consequence we get...

And have ALWAYS gotten...and FAR WORSE...in wars...since the DAWN OF HUMANITY...contrary to the terribly mistaken and rose-colored and subsquently dark fantasies of so many conservatives and liberals...

And the ONLY way to correct it is NOT to scapegoat 21-year-old soldiers...

But to open our hearts...to get underneath it...to seek to understand it...to seek to deal with it HONESTLY (and not shove it under the rug, as the Administration has done up until now)...and to work OPENLY and WITH AS LITTLE FEAR OF RETRIBUTION as possible to deal with the underlying issues here...

The emotional consequences of warfare...

The fear of dying and being killed...the emotional consequences of killing others...the pain associated with watching friends and soldiers die...the accumulated pain and fear on the hearts of soldiers and civilians, alike, amidst the most dangerous centers of war...and all of the pain and fear inflicted in a WAY HYPERPUNITIVE AND HARSH MILITARY CULTURE that still hasn't quite figured out that IT -- as much as any one soldier -- is responsible for so much of the ugliness that we see year in a year out in war and out the military establishment...

As the Dixie Chicks sing...though the realities are far more complicated than their song...

The answer is found in more love...in more compassion...in more understanding...

The kind that Bobby Kennedy spoke up as he announced the assassination of Martin Luther King...the kind that he had to summon up as he forgave the murder of his own brother and as he talks about in his speech to Indianapolis in April of 1968 and to the country...

The kind that the Central Park jogger who was raped and left for dead almost two decades ago spoke about in her book...

The kind that Desmond Tutu speaks of in his work on truth and
reconciliation and truth and reconciliation commissions to replace or, at least, compliment, the International Criminal Court, that conservatives are so RIGHTLY weary of, especially when it comes to the welfare of U.S. soldiers and officers...

Like 21-year-old Lyndie England:):):):):):)...

I have more to blog:):):)...

But that's enough for now about Lyndie:):):)...

Maybe, now, Lyndie can believe again -- a little bit more -- in a country that was ready to abandon her when she had signed up to sacrafice her life for them...

What a terrible, terrible, ugly tragedy it would be for Lyndie England to have 11 years of her life WASTED...while those with most culpability for these awful things that happened at Abu Grahib remain silent, more worried about their own hind ends...

...than about the fate of the significant bulk of the life of a 21-year-old girl...

Godspeed, everyone:):):)...sweet dreams:):):):):):)...

Love,
Ben