A few mornings ago my sister put her foot down on the Iraqi prison scandal by saying the following in Filipino, which I gladly translated for you all, dear friends: We all know that stuff is happening, it’s only that people were stupid enough to take pictures and leak this out.

Her words surprised me a little bit, but it put my feet back on the ground in considering this Prison Abuse Scandal™ that has gripped the rest of us for a very long time, it seems. The truth is, I don’t know where the high and lofty outrage really is coming from. Winky winky, are we that naive? Winky winky, come on now, we know it doesn’t happen, right? Winky winky, dear friends.

Now, I won’t argue whether such actions are unconscionable or not; for me they are inexcusable. But as I have written before, in every war there are war criminals: schoolyard bullies with power trips who know nothing about restraint much less a larger respect for the Uniform. At least they will be gone.

Irreperable damage? Well, that’s how the shit goes down. But as Sissy Willis noted very quickly, it’s almost “expected” in the Arab world that “torture” and torture and Torture and TORTURE happen. They have not viewed the evnts of Abu Ghraib with French — nay, American — eyes, or at least most of them, to who this “culture” of military abuse is next to normal.

Yes, it stinks. It really does, and I have been completely out of the loop the past few days from the news, the media, and what have you, but again, winky winky, did we really think this wasn’t going on? Better than Saddam may not be good enough, but could it really be a step in a good, if not better direction? Winky winky.