Cultures have consequences  Abu Ghraib was merely fruit from a
tree borne in season   With all the opinion spilling again
through the media about Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, Michael
Cannon Jr. has a right to be heard.  Maj. Cannon served as the
head chaplain for the 800th Military Police Brigade, the unit
that gained such notoriety over the last year because it was in
charge of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq where the most notable
abuses of prisoners seem to have taken place. For several
reasons, the Cannon perspective is not all encompassing. But it
is up-close and personal. I find him a persuasive witness.  In a
pair of national appearances on C-SPAN 2 and through his new
280-page book, Abu Ghraib: Through the Looking Glass, Maj.
Cannon charges that the mainstream media have vastly
oversimplified the whole issue of prisoner abuse. Not for a
second does he justify or minimize the crude and dehumanizing
behavior of some of his colleagues in the 800th, and only
occasionally does he sound defensive. Instead, he p