I think the balance here is simple....one photo of Saddam in his undies...and the Arab world takes offense. Hundreds of suicide bombings....murders of hundreds of people by death squads....and not a peep out of the Arab world. Their news media show full videotapes of terrorists beheading hogtied victims but refuse to show Saddam in his undies because it is offensive.
If you cannot see the mindset we are up against then you need to get your spectacles checked. Pardon me if I fail to equate someone getting his butt whacked with a broomstick and a hostage getting his head hacked off on TV.
Since most of you here are serving in the military....do you recall how the Iraqi's treated our POW's during Gulf One? Did you hear any outrage from the Arab world over that? I guess the Geneva Convention did not apply to the Iraqi military?
When I begin to hear the "moderate" Muslims taking exception to terrorist acts then I will be more inclined to consider our "mistreatment" of them to be more of an issue.
The mistreatment handed out is relatively mild and limited in scope considering the numbers of people involved. Only because our press is so quick to air our dirty laundry in public is it such an issue. If our (the American and British) media was as dedicated to depicting the bombings and murders as the evil they are then maybe the world's opinions could be influenced in a postive manner.
Instead of spending hours and hours of broadcast time on bombings and showing the horrorific results....they show a quick blast of video....quickly tell you the body count and move on the horrors of Al Grahab or some other "horrible" act by our side.
I have a close friend who was a supervisor of interrogators in Gitmo.....and have had several discussions with him about what was going on down there. We both agreed the "hard line" was not the way to obtain good results but rather the "soft line" was the preferred method. The US Navy SEALS used the soft line during the Vietnam War and were very successful in obtaining useful and timely intelligence for the conduct of follow-up operations.
Excesses have occurred....and they serve up grist for the propaganda mill used by the Terrorists. In my opinion however, we need to cease our hand wringing over it and move on. These excesses fall far short of the murder, torture, and other evils being done by our enemies. War is not a perfect science and mistakes will be made.
I refuse to hang those on my side while the enemy are doing what they are. I might suggest as Disreali said one time...."The British Navy did not change until we shot a few Admirals." (or words to that effect)