England's Pleading

Today, Private Lynndie England will plead guilty to charges in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse case. These prosecutions were a long time coming, and I think all Americans - including the Bush administration - are relieved to see at last justice done and goats scaped. After all, the president has laid down a clear marker: anyone who believes that torture and abuse are acceptable tools in US foreign policy is worth no more than the meaningless backwater post of Attorney General.

And this approach has been a success. In the year since the Abu Ghraib story broke, there has not been one published instance of an Iraqi detainee tortured by an American serviceperson on film or video. Woo hoo! Weez on a roll!

But what of young Lynndie England, earthy star of this pageant of pain? Well, hers is a cautionary tale. She was once America's Swinging Sixties sweetheart in films like Barbarella and Barefoot In The Park. Then she took a wrong turn and landed overseas. Soon, all the world saw her smiling alongside enemy combatants, appearing to cheer on their efforts to humiliate the United States by stripping naked and mounting a body-pile insurgency. Now she was a symbol to America's enemies and the very embodiment of the addle-brained radical-chic politics long associated with small-town West Virginia. Could she ever apologize enough to satisfy her critics? The whole furor came to a head last week when she visited St. Louis for a hood-signing and was spit on by an angry Vietnam vet who she refused to give a reacharound.

Note: portions of the above are recycled from my review of My Life So Far.

Lynndie could spend a maximum of eleven years in prison. That's a long time, but I'm sure she'll find plenty of interest when she's released and resumes her favorite hobby, posing for very authentic Civil War reenactment photos:



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