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The New York Times offers a glimpse into the operations at Abu Ghraib prison. Seeing the photographs is one thing. It's quite another thing to read about the abuse. Stomping on fingers and toes, hitting detainees so hard that they're knocked unconscious, lunging into groups of people on the floor over and over again, "like it was a pile of autumn leaves," in addition to the sexual humiliation.

One interesting element in the latest news could well be the firefight between various echelons in the armed forces. Jeremy C. Sivits, who brought the scandal to light, paints a picture that reflects the views of the higher ups, namely, that this was the work of a few out-of-control individuals. Lawyers for those accused offer a much different story.

This is the ugly side of the American character, and I fear that our impending loss in Iraq will reveal more of that side.

Via Atrios, Matthew Yglesias has a link of his own to a conservative site which expresses this pretty succintly: in their mindset, the choice is between wishing Arabs would just go away versus those who wish to blow them away.

Consider: at present, the United States is mired in two military conflicts, the economy is still quite shaky, the military itself will be struggling to control its internal damage, we've alienated our long-time European allies, who refuse to be part of a fool's errand, politics has literally trumped national security in the outing of Valerie Plame, somebody--sorry, I can't recall the source--pointed out that the job of counterrorism chief in the Bush administration might as well be listed as temporary employment, since no one lasts for more than about a year. And that's not even half of it.

It's going to be a bumpy ride, that's for sure.