Poor little Lynndie England, seen here in the photo that made her famous, says that life is tough these days.  Boo-Hoo.

According to a frighteningly sympathetic article on the Fox News website, England has had a tough time of it after being released from prison.  She served only half of her measly three-year sentence.

“I don’t have a social life,” England complains, “I sit at home all day.”

The unimaginable hardships don’t stop there.  She claims that she cannot travel because people point and whisper about her, barely leaves the house, and that she can’t get a job because, when managers try to hire her, everyone else threatens to quit.

She’s tried dying her hair and dressing differently, but nothing works.  She says that “it’s my face that’s always recognized.”

Maybe that’s because it became the face of the ugly American when photos showing the Army Private smiling and pointing at inmate’s genitals were published several years ago.  The pictures were seen as proof by those who already hated the United States and as a good reason to change their minds for many who didn’t.  The pictures became the single greatest recruiting tool Al Qaeda has ever had.

England claims that she was a pawn - a scapegoat who followed orders and got burned.  The military tribunals didn’t buy the Nuremberg defense after WWII, and they didn’t buy it in this case either.  England was given a short three years in prison, but was released after serving only half her sentence.

It was a grotesque injustice.  In her actions as an Abu Ghraib guard, and in those photos, Lynndie England strengthened our enemies ways they could never have expected.  As a result, the United States has suffered, at the very least, a global public relations blow from which it will take decades to recover.  Her betrayal of her uniform and the values of this country are as traitorous as her disregard for basic human decency is disgusting.

Lynndie should still be in prison.  If the military justice system had any dignity, she would have been given life without parole.

That she has the unmitigated audacity to complain about the difficulties she has brought upon herself, while ignoring the damage she’s done to her country, is so far beyond dispicable it boggles the mind.

-Robert Laurie