Abu Ghraib Trials

A few months ago, I wrote a post called "Abu Ghraib: waiting for the other shoe to drop" where I spoke about the upcoming trials of some of the soldiers who had pleaded "not guilty" to the charges of abusing prisoners. In my post, I had commented on how these trials may be interesting, since in the prior cases, the defense lawyers had not mounted a defense or introduced theories about how the techniques used by their clients may have originated higher up the military chain of command.

In that light, today's opening statement by Guy Womack, the defense attorney for Charles Graner was a real disappointment. In his opening statement, Womack defended his client's forcing prisoners to form naked human pyramids by saying, "Don't cheerleaders all over America form pyramids six to eight times a year. Is that torture?"

What an unbelievably ridiculous statement! I wonder just how stupid and gullible Guy Womack thinks the jury in this case really is. Yes, cheerleaders do form human pyramids, but they don't do it naked, and nobody forces them to do it. How someone can draw a parallel between cheerleaders and what these miscreants did in Abu Ghraib is beyond me.

I suppose Guy Womack's defense of this other picture will be that Graner was engaged in a friendly bout of boxing, or maybe even a game of "pat-a-cake" with the prisoners under his watch:

"Pat-a-Cake", Abu-Ghraib style




I had hoped Graner's defense would have provoked some interesting questions and public discussion around the Abu Ghraib fiasco. Unfortunately, if today is any indication, it seems his defense may just provide some unneeded comic entertainment.