Poor Lynndie England. I think she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think that her superiors put her up to it. No one would do that unless a superior ordered them to...and now she's getting the brunt of it. (atleast that's my take on it...take it for what it's worth)

I think she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think that her superiors put her up to it.

Sorry Alison, but that's bull crap.  I don't see how you can call performing sex acts on half the unit 'being in the wrong place at the wrong time'. She might have been put up to it, but she had the opportunity, the duty, and the obligation to refuse to obey an unlawful order. Law Of Armed Conflict training specifically states that military personnel MUST refuse to obey an unlawful order. 

As for people not doing things like that unless ordered to....I'm going to have to disagree again there.  There are people who take great pleasure in torturing others, in maiming and desecrating and hurting their fellow man. Lynndie sure looked like she was having a hell of a time....and even if she did get 'caught up in the moment' and do things that she normally wouldn't do, the fact still remains that she did them.  She got caught, and she has to pay the consequences for her actions.  Period.

 

Right on, dharma. I feel exactly the same way about the issue.

Holy Crap! I saw the title and thought... 'What did I do?'

I know that both of your husbands serve and everything, so you would probably know more about how the inner minds of the military works...from a total outsider (being myself) that's just how the situation looks.

from a total outsider (being myself) that's just how the situation looks.

It's really very simple.....she has to accept responsibility for what she did.  Look at it this way:  if this kind of thing had happened in a civilian prison, do you think that the guards responsible would have been able to say "but the warden told us to do it" and get off scott free?  I doubt it.  They would have had a responsibility to report what they were being asked to do to the apporpriate authority.  the military takes it a step further - they tell personnel that they have a duty, that they MUST NOT obey an unlawful order, and that they are obligated, that they MUST report it.

Tex...Lynndie pisses me off.  I mean, she really pisses me off. I haven't figured out exactly why, but she just infuriates me.

Chip:  you posted pics that you had taken illegally on the flight line......ooh, you rebel, you!!!!

Chip: you posted pics that you had taken illegally on the flight line......ooh, you rebel, you!!!!

HAHA! But you can't see the tail number... (strictly taboo for us)

Poor Lynndie England. I think she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

from a total outsider (being myself) that's just how the situation looks.

  Did you actually look at the images of what she did?  Did you look at the expression of joy on her face?  I just can't see how anyone can say that she wasn't fully into the whole thing.  And, do you lose your ethics once you join the military and are at the mercy of your superiors?  I don't think so.  She knew what she was doing and she enjoyed it.  She's now playing the "victim female" because she doesn't want to do the time.  That's my "outsider" opinion.

Did you look at the expression of joy on her face? I just can't see how anyone can say that she wasn't fully into the whole thing.

That's one of the sticking points for me . . . in addition to the fact that she was willfully involved in an illegal relationship with another soldier (and involved in other assorted skankery), she was smiling and gleeful in those photos. Someone can command you to do something, but they can't MAKE you like it. I don't feel a bit sorry for her. Her actions (and those of the others involved) gave the military a black eye and put the lives of American soldiers and civilians in danger.

No one would do that unless a superior ordered them to...

lol if anyone issued an order to do that stuff the Privates would leap at the chance to sink their ass for issuing unlawful orders...

I agree. She may be explicitly ordered to do those crap, but they can't order her to LIKE it, etc etc. She seemed to be very happy doing those.

I don't feel sorry for Lynndie...but I do feel sorry for her Abu Ghraiby Baby...poor kid.

I've spent a quarter of my life working directly with child molesters and evry other shade of pervert and violent criminal. Granted, I've thought a million times how these people should be publicly crucified, BUT, to met out your own punishment is to be like them on their level. Chip Federick was a civilian corrections officer. He knew better. Now he's one of them and Ms. England can be one to.

I have a problem with him appealing the sentence after reading the things he admitted to doing. He deserved the 8 years, forcing prisoners to masturbate?
Give me a fucking break, that is not only prisoner abuse but sexual assault.

Where are the courts martials for their CO's? That is the big thing that pisses me off about this. Since I have never seen ignorance work at a Courts martial.