While watching S.O.P. I was struck by the completely unapologetic attitude of Lynndie England. I cannot understand how someone who did things clearly outside of any ethical construct could remain so cold. Her explanations that it "didn't seem out of the ordinary at the time" ring hollow when she later blames her misjudgments on her feelings toward Graner, her boyfriend at the time.
The explanations that the procedures were entirely to discomfort and humiliate the prisoners in order to extract information doesn't make sense, either. Afterall, how can a prisoner be further humiliated by smiling faces, pictures, and thumbs-up signals if he can't see them due to blindfolds. Even in situations would theoretically call for "alternative" means of information extraction, I hardly think it's expected to be enjoyed by the inflictors. Abu Ghraib seems to have been filled with a company of uninhibited sadists. The claim of "just following orders" seems completely ludcris when compared to the bravery exhibited by Hugh Thompson Jr., who defied much more extreme orders during the My Lai massacre and saved a group of innocent Vietnamese from a slaughter. With examples like that, there can hardly be claims of "just following orders" being the only method of survival.