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Good Soldier

What happens when a Buddhist goes to war? Benjamin Thompson speaks about his year as a guard at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the overlooked humanitarian crisis there.

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In February 2004, Army Specialist Benjamin Thompson's unit was rushed into Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. They were assigned to replace the unit that would soon find itself at the center of a worldwide media scandal with the release of photographs documenting the assault and sexual humiliation of prisoners under their guard. But what Thompson, who was recently given his honorable discharge, wants people to know is that the crimes exposed by the Abu Ghraib photos were not isolated incidents but symptoms of the system-wide inhumane policies of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq.

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