Worst.Defense.Ever.

Where on earth did this clown go to law school?

"A lawyer for Charles Graner, accused ringleader in the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal, on Monday compared piling naked prisoners into pyramids to cheerleader shows and said leashing inmates was also acceptable prisoner control."

Look, when the facts are undisputed the Defense needs to generate sympathy. You do that by telling a compelling story, explain how dangerous Iraq was, explain how frightened/frustrated/agitated/whatever the guard was. You try to get into the listener's head and make the listener start to wonder, "what would I have done in such a situation?" It worked extraordinarily well in the case of the Marine who shot a wounded Iraqi in a mosque, because any American with an empathetic bone in his or her body concluded that the self-protection impulse justified the actions.

Now compare that success with the instant case: what if I were a guard in Iraq, and I just had this desparate urge to help my prisoners act out their American cheerleader fantasies? That's not such a bad thing, is it? I'm not such a bad guy, just because I like to photograph hot man-on-man Iraqi naked cheerleading pictures, am I?

Now raise your hand if you sympathize. Anyone? Anyone?