Proud to be an American

You would think when you report possible human rights violations, you would be viewed as a hero in America, as we generally believe all people have those rights to begin with.

Not so, it seems, for Staff Sgt. Joseph Darby, the man who alerted U.S. Army investigators to the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison. Darby's family has been subjected to threats and vandalism since word has gotten out of his role in the investigation.

Relatives of the U.S. soldier who sounded the alarm about abuse of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison said on Monday the family was living in protective custody because of death threats against them.

Reservist military police officer Staff Sgt. Joseph Darby alerted U.S. Army investigators about the abuse by fellow soldiers of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, a move his wife says has angered people in their community in western Maryland.

"People were mean, saying he was a walking dead man, he was walking around with a bull's eye on his head. It was scary," said Bernadette Darby from Corriganville, Maryland.

(snip)

Darby's sister-in-law, Maxine Carroll, said people had written graffiti on her fence but she also applauded what her brother-in-law did and said she was horrified by a series of graphic photographs Darby handed over to investigators.

These are the kind of things that frustrate me about America nowadays. Don't forget the meme has become the war was to liberate Iraq from a cruel oppressor, and when someone speaks out against oppression still occurring, his life gets threatened and property destroyed.

These are the people Lee Greenwood had in mind.