Guilty

I guess some justice is better than none.

Army Pfc. Lynndie England, whose smiling poses in photos of detainee abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison made her the face of the scandal, was convicted Monday by a military jury on six of seven counts.

England, 22, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of committing an indecent act. She was acquitted on a second conspiracy count.

England's trial is the last for a group of nine Army reservists charged with mistreating prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, a scandal that badly damaged the United States' image in the Muslim world despite quick condemnation of the abuse by President Bush.

OK, she did it and she will be punished. Good. But does anyone believe her actions were the result of her own initiative? If so, how do you explain the abuses in Cuba? In Afghanistan? If widespread abuse isn't policy, what is it? Coincidence? And if the United States didn't violate the Geneva Conventions, as the U.S. attorney general has maintained, how is it that England, a U.S. soldier, is guilty of anything? You can't have it both ways.

ps. When was the last time you saw the words "quick" and "President Bush" in the same sentence? Just wondering.