Quote Of The Day: The Real Abu Ghraib Edition

"Crimes Unit? That's pretty much what it does."

-- Capt Tane Dunlop, British Army spokesman

British and Iraqi forces raided a rogue police station in Basra and because the crimes unit housed there was "frankly, too far gone," blew up the whole building.

British forces raided the headquarters of a rogue police unit in Basra on Christmas morning to free prisoners who were about to be executed.

Many of the 127 captives were found in a cramped and squalid cell at the headquarters of the serious crimes unit and showed signs of torture, officers said.

After the raid by 1,000 British and Iraqi troops, Royal Engineers laid charges and blew up the two-storey concrete building, known locally as the "station of death."

The serious crimes unit is the same police division raided in September last year to free two SAS troopers who were about to be sold to insurgents.

Start counting ... let's see how long it takes the human rights activists and their friends in the media to congratulate the forces of good for putting an end to the torture that went on in this now destroyed building.

Breathe again, because you'll never hear that praise. What you'll hear, instead, is that our invasion of Iraq led to these rogue police departments -- despite the fact that the station is now a pile of rubble and the surviving rogue police units are hunted and on the run.

But that doesn't fool the people of Basra, who have been under the thumb of others for so long, who until the day before yesterday cowered under the threat of torture, but today are free.

What better symbol for the rightness of our effort could the people of Basra wish for than this: Freedom-loving forces from abroad coming to their town, planting explosives, and demolishing the house of death that once haunted their neighborhood and tortured their loved ones?

There have been missteps, sure, but our path is true, our motives are right, and our efforts and sacrifices are appreciated by most Iraqis.

Related Tags: Iraq, War in Iraq, Basra