I can tell you about first-hand accounts of what both sides of the Vietnam war did to POWs. How they got information out of them. Disgusting, vile, horrid acts. Rape, torture, murder, mutilation. And I know that, also from first hand accounts, that the stress and insanity of constant death made a lot of guys snap. Even those who didnt snap because so desensitized to the violence that it didnt matter. That's what happens in war.

However, it is not an excuse. Those Iraqi people that murdered those civilians... well I'm sure they were under a lot of stress! Just like our boys. But it doesnt make what they did okay. There is no justifaction for the actions of either the Iraqi torturers, nor the people spoken of in this article. No justification.

Though of course, my saying so will cause me to be branded as an anti-American terrorist. Well... if being against murder and torture makes me a communist, then sign me up.

And Big D, I loved everything you said. Thank you for saying it.