Customer Reviews

TORTURED: Lynndie England, Abu Ghraib and the Photographs that Shocked the World

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Most of us had formed an opinion of our military's few 'bad apples' based on media coverage. This writer's research reveals new information about the conditions inside the Iraqi War and specifically about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. This book sheds light on Ms. England's early life and how she ends up in Iraq. But, how on earth can this shy homey girl evolve into something indescribable? It's good to read what is likely the only factual accounting of this scandal. The family photos added to the drama. It may or may not change your opinion. My hat's off to the writer for his perseverance.

Gary Winkler does a more than excellent and objective job writing about Lynndie England and her life--before and after her experience at Abu Ghraib. I would recommend everyone read this book and form your own opinions about Lynndie and what happened from her viewpoint at Abu Ghraib. After viewing an interview with the BBC August 13 this past week, it is obvious that Lynndie continues to be manipulated by those who do not have best interests at heart. Read the book and give her a chance. Maybe she will escape the need to be manipulated by other people eventually. She's still young and there's hope.

Nice effort by the author to present this subject, though dated it may be. The book is well-researched and written, and I found it to be an enlightening read, reinforcing my thoughts that there are no excuses for the conduct of the soldiers involved in these abuses.

a well written and researched book about our recent past and one of is salient actors. not only is lyndie given a chance to speak of her experiences thereby passing the screeners who usually provide our information but a basic review of the iraqi war is also spoken/written of in a different light in the process.

Screw her. If her and her company didn't do this at Abu Gharib, we wouldn't have been yanked off the tarmac in Kuwait and sent to Abu Gharib to fix their mess. The day after we were sent there (when we were on our way home,) we lost a Soldier from a freak accident. An accident that would have never happened if this white trash POS didn't torture those prisoners. SO. If I ever see her in real life, she had better watch out. Remember Landis Garrison.

I thought that this was a heartfelt book from a young woman who was trying to make sense of disasterous events which she participated in. It is never right nor is there ever any justification for torture or abusing any other human or animal and I am sure that the people that were tortured in Abu Ghraib will never rightly forget or perhaps forgive their tormentors. I think it was right that Ms England went to prison, but there were many others who were far higher up who knew of the abuse and did nothing. People who enabled it to happen who have never been brought to justice.

I was interested to hear what Lynndie England had to say for herself as there are always twos sides to each story. Having read the book, I have a lot of sympathy for the US soliders who were untrained for the roles that they had, unsupervised, with no management intervention and doing their jobs under very difficult circumstances - ie, the unsanitary conditions, soliders working very long hours without breaks (12 hours shifts for 40 days in one case) and being bombed pretty much all the time. Sadly I understand that there have been many cases of abuse , not just from US soliders but British as well which makes me feel that it was systemic rather than the responsibility of 'a few bad apples'.

The lack of accountability and responsibility for what was happening allowed the circumstances for appauling abuse. A very good and easy to read book and I read it along side 'the Lucifer Effect' by Philip Zimbardo who comments on the Abu Ghraib abuses from a pyschological standpoint.

Honestly, years ago, one of the last things I wanted to do was read about the "face" of the Abu Ghraib scandal. The media, after all, had sufficiently done its typical over-the-top saturation coverage of the issue and I felt I really didn't need any more information on the topic. Compounding my initial sentiment was the disgust I felt over the mere possibility that a few irresponsible idiots and a camera may have augmented an already incendiary situation in Iraq that resulted in unnecessary American deaths. However, now that several years have passed and the "dust" has somewhat "settled" since the Abu Ghraib scandal was first covered, I was more receptive to read about one the scandal's major players ... the "leash girl" herself, Lynndie England.

I picked up Gary Winkler's book, "Tortured" in an effort to learn more about the rationale, if not the excuses, of the soldier that became synonymous with Abu Ghraib. The media's angle in reporting the issue seemed more politically motivated than honest overview of events. Although Winkler does provide an introspective look at the life of Lynndie England, the book left me with mixed feelings, the most prominent is that England is portrayed as a victim at almost every step of her life. Additionally, there are two points the reader may want to know beforehand: First, the book is the only "authorized biography of Lynndie England" and second, the author is known for his works on West Virginian culture (Lynndie England is from West Virginia). I felt these two points factored in dictating the tone of the book.

"Tortured" teases the reader by starting with England being detained by the military in Iraq for undisclosed reasons before taking us back to the very beginning, England's childhood in West Virginia. From the start, Winkler preps the reader with a variety of victim-related issues that could be used to justify her behavior, whether it be her family's financial despair, a hard-living, deep-woods country environment or early childhood developmental issues that she eventually overcame in high school. This section of the book is rather interesting, as we get a glimpse of Lynndie England outside the military, an innocent country girl striving to be the first in her family to go to college. The desire to be a meteorologist and the college degree it would require leads England to enlist in the US Army ... a patriotic decision with a GI Bill benefit. Portrayed as being young, naïve and somewhat gullible, her life seems rather innocent and predictable to a degree. Enter Charles Graner, the ex-Marine reservist who is portrayed as the devil-in-disguise from the moment he is introduced in the book. Almost immediately, Winkler portrays England as prey to the predatory Graner who snakesg her away from the hometown boy she married prior to active duty. What follows are a series of bad-behavior incidents and the start of England's disdain for the military's rules of conduct. Before long, the "innocent" West Virginian appears to be spellbound by Graner who can apparently coax her into anything ... not that she was an unwilling accomplice.

Upon deploying to Iraq as part of an MP detachment assigned to guard prisoners, we get a continued dose of England's and Graner's improper conduct and how it meshes with the military's vague policy on handling non-combatant prisoners. It is at this point, I realized the not-so-subtle victimization of Lynndie England at the hands of the US Government. Although the book does not shy away from describing the actions associated with the infamous photos of Abu Ghraib, they are tempered with England's rationale/excuses and the author's steady injection of questionable US foreign policy ... all of which seem to indicate the abuse of prisoners was almost unavoidable. I do give credit to the author for including the incriminating photos which allows the reader to see the delight on England's face while participating in the prisoner abuse. The pictures alone seem to contradict her somber attempt to explain the situation. But, by providing the visual evidence of the abuse with England's explanation, the author allows the reader to ultimately decide which speaks more of the truth ... the Lynndie England in the photos or the Lynndie England facing the consequences of those photos.

The last third of the book is devoted to Lynndie England's fate, personally and professionally. It is not difficult for the reader to empathize with the difficulties she faces at this particular moment: the burden of carrying and giving birth to a child fathered by an indifferent Charles Graner, discovering Graner's infidelity with a fellow soldier/friend, the death of a beloved aunt, the hate mail received by she and her family, her parents' divorce, the likelihood of serving a prison sentence as the mother of an infant child and being booted from the Army. Wilder, however, does not paint England to be a victim this time ... she portrayed as a survivor.

Whether right or wrong, Lynndie England became the "face" of Abu Ghraib even though others share as much, if not more of the blame. While I found Gary Wilder's book to be both interesting and informative; I also found it a little too subjective and coddling at times. I feel Wilder paints England to be a victim of circumstance throughout the book (developmental issues as a child, blind follower to Charles Graner, the Bush Administration's strategy in Iraq, etc.) and the reader is somewhat prodded to focus on other people and issues as the reason for her behavior in Iraq. While the book is not an attempt to exonerate Lynndie England's actions it appears to be an attempt to garner empathy, if not sympathy for her. Is England a victim or a deviant? While Wilder's words may support one side, the pictures themselves support the other ... ultimately it is up to the reader to decide.

This book is GREAT! It is very well written and does a nice job of telling the truth about what really happened at Abu Ghraib.

To use your hard earned money to fund this worthless human being is ridiculous. She is trash and a discrace to our country. To purchase this book simply tarnishes our good nation further by us supporting her. Lynnndie has made a permanent stain on the face of this great nation and she should not profit from her actions. She should be exiled.

My unit lost Soldiers as a direct result of her and her former unit. To finance her current life would be disrespectful to the Soldiers who were injured and perished because of those photos.
It is not hard to "just say no"...