Wait, wasn't Jesus crucified? I don't remember that happening at Abu Ghariab. I remember some cheap fraternity pranks involving pink panties and naked guys wrestling. Maybe we just didn't see the crucification pictures. Or MAYBE, just MAYBE, Slate will use ANY excuse to bring up Abu Ghariab? Hmmmm, I wonder....

I agree that equating Abu Ghariab with real torture is kind of a stretch, but I'm not sure that's what the author was doing, and I think we can still have compassion for the prisoners and anger at how they were treated. I think the comparison was helpful in terms of the humiliation aspect. Personally, I like to think about historical figures in comparison to people today, because it kind of brings home the reality of what happened in the past.

I think the author was just trying to show how non-cuddly the whole thing is. No Abu Ghariab victims were crucified, but the images are comparably disturbing.

I remember some cheap fraternity pranks involving pink panties and naked guys wrestling.

You must have been in one hell of a harsh fraternity. The question isn't whether Abu Ghraib was as bad as full-blown torture, e.g., what McCain went through, or as bad as the crucifixion of Christ*; the question is whether it was moral, or necessary, or justified, or right.

* I have to wonder if the author made that comparison to stir up a hornet's nest, or if he just has a tin ear for how that comparison would sound.

Yeah, I thought the whole Abu Gharib mention did cheapen the whole post.

I can see your point. I mean, what the fuck? How dare they compare Christ, who was tortured and died, to some Iraqis who were tortured,and at least one of who died?

. . . but I have to say that my junior high locker room WAS fairly comparable to this gentleman's fraternity . . . and, for that matter, to what I saw happening at Abu Ghraib.

That said, I think this is an indictment of a sinister thread in the American (or, to be fair, perhaps the human) psyche, rather than a comment on the morality of the acts in question.

As to the comparison with the crucifixion, well, who's to say? All equivalencies are false, on some level; some are just more (or, in this case, less) illustrative than others.