HO-Gaannn!

The aptly-named and not-intended-for-family-consumption Rude Pundit blog translates the recent story about tortured Afghan prisoners into a perhaps more accessible context.

Since, for many of us, a part of our unconscious image of POW camps derives from the 60s TV show Hogan's Heroes, the Rude One asks what "If Stalag 13 Had Been Like Bagram:"

Alas, Hogan's Heroes. And poor LeBeau. He never stood a chance. The second that Sgt. Schultz discovered the receiver in the coffee pot and then sputtered a report to Colonel Klink, who then discovered the comically obvious bugs in his office, LeBeau's fate was sealed. But there was so much to go through before the sweet kiss of death finally sucked the last breath from the ill-fated Frenchman.

It gets pretty gruesome from there. While it may seem distasteful to use the framework of a sit-com to talk about this horror, as usual the Rude One's aim is true. The image of those lovable TV rogues in the place of the Afghanis, and ourselves as the Nazis, communicates the fundamental wrong of it all on a different level.

It amazes me that the Bagram scandal has not only failed to bring down this administration, but it's barely bubbling in the news.