Let's Do The Photo Flog Again!

Abu Ghraib. Try as it might to use use the photos of prisoner harassment to turn Americans against the war in Iraq, all MSM accomplished by overplaying that story was to fuel international resentment of America and make things more dangerous for our soldiers.

Since the photos ran, George W. Bush was reelected with a solid mandate, Alberto Gonzales was confirmed as Attorney General, the guilty soldiers have been punished and soldiers in the field have been made to understand the rules.

So why is a batch of similar prison photos out of Afghanistan -- photos of old events from the Abu Ghraib era, nothing recent -- something that would justify page one play in the LATimes? (And not the NYTimes or WaPo?) Could it by the boys of One Times Square are at it again?

Look at what they've got:

U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan posed before cameras while threatening to shoot prisoners in the head, shoving a detainee into a wall and punching another inmate. The troops also mugged for "trophy shots" with the corpse of an enemy fighter who had invaded their camp last year.

Oh. The. Horror. Do these knuckleheads really want war prisoners to be treated the the sort of care they expect for themselves when they're jailed for not revealing their sources? When they comment on a "trophy shot," do they not remember our boys' heroic, dead bodies being dragged through streets, beaten and burned?

These are soldiers, John Carroll, not college students. They are the best soldiers in the world. They don't rape 12 year olds, like UN Peacekeepers. They don't blow up civilians, like Hamas and al Qaida. Try as you might to convince Americans they should spit on our soldiers when they return home, we will continue to cheer them, thinking less of you while we do.