Reply #12: Here's your answer

[juajen]

We have absolutely not heard any reliable sources (the pow's themselves) that have said they were mistreated by the Iraqis. All of our prisoners of war at the beginning (Lynch's buddies) were returned wearing pajamas, looking clean and wounds having been treated. The guys strung up after being burned to death in an attack were DEAD. You certainly could say they were guilty of dishonoring the dead, but that is what they did. Additionally, they were not US soldiers, they were "contractors", read mercenaries. They did not torture POWs. Even Hamill, the dairy farmer from Mississippi, was in good shape, arm bandaged, etc.

There is a question in most folks heads of how our soldiers pictured in the original POW photos were killed; but, our soldiers said they were killed during battle, not when they were being held prisoner. Different rules apply.

I had an argument with a very good friend of mine about the same thing. I went back and reviewed the pictures of our dead soldiers surrounding Shoshana Johnson when those soldiers were captured. One did have his underwear askew and he looked bloody. However, if the Iraqis had done anything wrong there, I think our returned soldiers would certainly have reported this, and it would have hit all the news stands. This did not happen. Evidently, they were injured in battle, and there appeared to be an effort to treat the wounds. There was a lot of flack about these soldiers being shot in the head, which could also and probably was done during battle. I think if the Iraqis had shot these soldiers in the head, we would certainly have been informed by the returned prisoners of war. Also note, Jessica Lynch was treated very well, by her own admission, and in direct opposition to the tales told by our government, which later were disputed by Jessica. Also, why kill some soldiers, but leave others alive?

In short, your answer to your friends who insist that the Iraqis should pay for dragging our soldiers through the street, and stringing them up for all to see, should be, "These people, not soldiers in the regular sense, were DEAD, not live prisoners. They are guilty of dishonoring the dead, nothing else. The killing was an attack on a humvee, I believe; in other words, war. Our soldiers are guilty of treating prisoners, some of them civilians who have nothing to do with the fighting, in inhumane ways, and some of these civilians were murdered. Presumably, this is just the beginning of this scandel. Lots more to come.

Another huge difference is that most of these detainees, I don't believe, are soldiers, but civilians