just because you got out of jail that don't mean you free

""An increasing number of Iraqi detainees are refusing to leave detention centres despite being eligible for release because they want to complete studies begun behind bars, a US general said on Sunday. In the last three or four months we have begun seeing detainees asking to stay in detention, usually to complete their studies," Major General Douglas Stone told a news conference in Baghdad." -- AFP, March 23, 2008

"U.S. commanders in Iraq have begun releasing thousands of detainees and expect to free more than half of the 23,000 held by American forces, according to senior military commanders. The moves are part of a broad effort to reshape the military's controversial detention policies, in part because the large number of Iraqis in U.S. custody is a source of public anger there." -- Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2008

Must be finals week.

Seriously, I've been consistently skeptical about US claims on behalf of the reformed prisons. The surge and related tactical adjustments included a sizable roundup of young Sunni men (some 23,000 at least), some from insurgency groups and many not. It's sounded like General Stone has tried to improve prison conditions, and education beats sexual humiliation, but that only goes so far. The idea floating around many news stories and press releases that the prisons were actually good for the US hearts and minds campaign has always baffled me. Generally, across cultures, people don't like being arbitrarily arrested and detained and kept from their families for years... even if it's "for their own good" and no matter how good the schooling. Funny, that."
Abu Aardvark