I can't believe this issue is still being discussed. I go away for a weekend and this is still being beat to death. What happened was wrong, and those responsible are being punished. Littlewitch...I don't know how it is you think you know the military, but it's more than just possible, but rather, it's extremely likely that no officers were aware this was taking place.
The REAL question is why did CBS publish the pictures? This endangered US soldiers lives. This story could have been told without the pictures. Some people have NO common sense. I make ZERO excuses for what these idiots did...throw the book at them...but to publish these pictures served no other purpose than to inflame Iraqis and endanger the lives of US soldiers.
As to the issue of homosexual conduct in the middle east....withing Jordan....and to a lesser extent Iraq...same gender sex is quite common among single men...and winked at. When I was in Jordan on of the quick lessons I learned was that if the Jordanian soldiers shared their tea with you, it was a good thing...but if they invited you to see their barracks...refuse the invitation...unless you like being....well...penetrated and probed. That doesn't make what happened any less humiliating for these Iraqis...but to start pointing out that in Saudi and Iran homosexuality is punishable by death is like pointing out that pornography is illegal in the Vatican when it isn't in Italy proper.
Final comment....
Isreal and Palenstine have been fighting since the 1960's,.... when does it end?
I'm not sure who said that...but the fighting has been going on since 1948...it will end when the Arabs stop....accept Israel as a state...and accept that they will never possess all of the mandate territory...and there's no such thing as a "palestinian"...they're arabs from around the arab world...egypt (like Arafat), Jordain, Saudi, etc etc etc.