Unusual to find myself agreeing with Steve/Noron1, but there you go....BTW, Karpinski is a reservist, and she made it clear that she was giving the interview while wearing her civilian hat. If I understood right, she said she had been suspended from her post, but not from the US Army.

I too would just question where Norton1 draws the line between abuse and pranks. From the tone of his other comments I suspect he would agree that cultural differences between the occupiers and the occupied should be respected. It is only a few weeks since we in the UK marvelled at the reaction in the US when someone exposed a nipple on tv! Whatever difference in standards there may be between the US and the UK - partners in the Iraq coalition - they must be hugely eclipsed by the differences between the western democracies and Islam.

Incidentally, I suspect that some difference of standards is evident even within the US and that a huge body of US opinion would be a bit less sanguine than Norton1 about making naked people climb all over each other.