Spin Dry

I know it's a New York Times article with that evil registration and all, but get Firefox and the BugMeNot extension, and that's not a problem. You must read, though, the account of Aidan Delgado, a 23 year old religion major from Florida who wound up in the quagmire that is Iraq. Just a taste:

"I walked up to my commander and gave him my weapon. I said: 'I'm not going to fight. I'm not going to kill anyone. This war is wrong. I'll stay. I'll finish my job as a mechanic. But I'm not going to hurt anyone. And I want to be processed as a conscientious objector.' "

He stayed with his unit and endured a fair amount of ostracism. "People would say I was a traitor or a coward," he said. "The stuff you would expect."

In November 2003, after several months in Nasiriya in southern Iraq, the 320th was redeployed to Abu Ghraib. The violence there was sickening, Mr. Delgado said. Some inmates were beaten nearly to death. The G.I.'s at Abu Ghraib lived in cells while most of the detainees were housed in large overcrowded tents set up in outdoor compounds that were vulnerable to mortars fired by insurgents. The Army acknowledges that at least 32 Abu Ghraib detainees were killed by mortar fire.

And there's worse in the article, far worse.

I forget again -- why didn't these people greet us strewing rose petals in the streets and begging for Democracy?