Read This. There are very bad people in the U.S. military. I think it is important that we do not react with knee jerk defense every time a disclosure like this is made...
but...
Would it have been to much to ask for the New York Times to acknowledge prominently within the piece that the source for this entire article was a report by the U.S. Department of Defense who investigated the incident and are in the process of trying the perpetrators for murder?
or...
Would that have violated the unwritten purpose for the article?
...been too balanced?
...Don't they realize what this makes them look like?
I would never defend the behavior, but I think the U.S. is one of the few countries in the world who will actually punish the perpetrators. Recall the United Nations covering up this type of illegal behavior by its 'peace keepers' in the Congo. In the U.S., the military command gives their investigation to the press.
Fair and balanced? Not even close.
UPDATE:
This is the extent of the sourcing disclosure in the story:
"The story of Mr. Dilawar's brutal death at the Bagram Collection Point - and that of another detainee, Habibullah, who died there six days earlier in December 2002 - emerge from a nearly 2,000-page confidential file of the Army's criminal investigation into the case, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.
Like a narrative counterpart to the digital images from Abu Ghraib, the Bagram file depicts young, poorly trained soldiers in repeated incidents of abuse. The harsh treatment, which has resulted in criminal charges against seven soldiers, went well beyond the two deaths." (emphasis added)
It would be hard not to recognize that the nature of the detailed report which carries with it extremely graphic imagery, should prominently acknowledge that the military corrected the problem and is punishing the perpetrators. Burying this information in the story provides quite an insiders look into what the New York Times is trying to accomplish with the piece.
Why it is enough to make you want to excuse the Newsweek article, or hate the U.S. military, or hate America...or hate the George W. Bush administration!
The New York Times is so transparent.
ANOTHER UPDATE:
New slogan for the New York Times:
"Hating the U.S. Military Since Vietnam!"
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