Images of Iraq war: The reaction here

The mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers has dominated our nation's conversation recently. We asked a handful of people with varying perspectives — a military mom, a minister, a former prisoner of war and others — what they are saying.

MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES "I grew up understanding, that's war. You have to expect the worst. You pray a lot and you hope for the best. But war isn't pretty."

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As the mother of two sons in the Army who just returned from Iraq, Vonne VanLaningham, knows one thing for certain: War is ugly.

So when pictures of Iraqi prisoners being mistreated in the Abu Ghraib prison surfaced in the media, she wasn't shocked.

"I'm an Army brat. My dad was in Vietnam," says VanLaningham, 51, who lives in Darrington. "I grew up understanding, that's war. You have to expect the worst. You pray a lot and you hope for the best. But war isn't pretty."

VanLaningham says she doesn't condone what happened to the prisoners but she understands why military guards may have gone to extremes.

"As far as military-intelligence gathering goes, you have to do what you have to do to get the information," she says. "I'm not completely into torture or maiming. But sleep deprivation is something different. Both my sons have had to go through that for training for their jobs."

Dana VanLaningham, 20, is in the 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment based at Fort Carson, Colo., and Damien VanLaningham in the 3rd Ranger Battalion at Fort Benning, Ga. They both returned from Iraq in April. Both enlisted in the Army after graduating from Darrington High School.

"We had 40-some-odd kids from my oldest boy's graduating class who went into some form of the military," VanLaningham says. "A lot of our kids' friends are still over there. I wish it would be over with and we could get out of there. I'd love to see them all come home."

While she wasn't shocked by pictures of the detainees, VanLaningham says she was sickened by the decapitation of the American civilian.

"All those people in al-Qaida and insurgents, they have no regard for human life whatsoever. Violence like that breeds more violence like that."

— Rachel Tuinstra

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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