Oh, gimme a break!
Today in the Washington Post:
...Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba attributed the [Abu Ghraib] scandal to the willful actions of a small group of soldiers and to "a failure of leadership" and supervision by brigade and lower-level commanders. ...
But several senators challenged the notion that low-ranking soldiers could have devised the particularly humiliating measures on their own...
What planet do these people live on? Human beings don't need to be coached on how to humilate others. It seems to come naturally to most. I still remember vividly a boy named Phillip in my Jr. High gym class. Phillip was a couple inches taller than the rest of us, gangly and uncoordinated. The "cool" guys in the class seemed to think it quite entertaining to snap Phillip on the butt with their wet towels as he bent to put on his underwear. They found great amusement in listening to him yelp in pain. Once was rarely enough and Philip was often in tears with multiple red marks on his butt and legs before he was dressed enough to be protected. One could hardly blame the coach for this behavior. They certainly didn't learn it from him. One can blame him for not intervening since I find it hard to believe he couldn't hear Phillip's cries.