How does prisoner abuse happen? My experience in the service was this: the Marines guarded the Yakuska Brig. They were so mean that they had to pull liberty a hundred miles away or they would have been killed by the former prisoners who had been under their "care". The guards were "controlled" by the threat of being sent directly into combat if they fucked up. Stories of abuse by prison guards in California, protected by the totally corrupt Guards Union, have been public knowledge for at least ten years. There is a pathology at work here and it has been investigated. The fact that this patholgy is well known and documented cannot excuse the despicable behavior of the officers in charge, especially the general. There is a site called Zimbardo that contains info. Below is a short summary of an experiment conducted at Stanford University:

he results showed that the behavior of the "‘normal" students who had been randomly allocated to each condition, was affected by the role they had been assigned, to the extent that they seemed to believe in their allocated positions.

The guards became more and more verbally and physically aggressive. Zimbardo described this as "the pathology of power". The prisoners became increasingly depersonalised and several experienced extreme emotional depression, crying, rage and acute anxiety.

The experiment had to be stopped after just six days instead of the planned 14 days, mainly because of the pathological reactions of the participants. Five prisoners had to be released even earlier because of extreme emotional depression.

Zimbardo believes that the study demonstrate the powerful effect roles can have on peoples' behavior. Basically the participants were playing the role that they thought was expected of, either a prisoner or prison guard.

This pathology is well known, one of the "guards" is a career corrections officer and the general has been at this stuff for years. The whole thing is awful and not remotely excusable given what we know of the pathology of both guards and inmates. This could cost us Iraq. My further experience in the service tells me that the grunts will be dishonorably discharged, maybe a few will do time in a stockade, but the officers will get off with reprimands. The general should go to jail but will get off.