Soldiers cavort with corpse

From WashPost:

NEW YORK -- Photos of two American soldiers posing with thumbs up near a body packed in ice at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison were shown on ABC-TV.

...

The detainee, whose badly bruised corpse was in a body bag packed with ice, died in the prison's showers while being interrogated by the CIA or other civilian agents, ABC reported Wednesday. It said the Justice Department is investigating the death.

In an account published Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported that the victim had been brought to the prison with his head covered by an empty sandbag. It said he died in the midst of intensive questioning in the shower by military intelligence officials. After he collapsed, the interrogators removed the bag and then saw severe head wounds that had not been treated. ... Womack told ABC News the photo of his client represented inappropriate "gallows humor."

Given that the commander in chief has been known to make fun of people he was about to execute, why would anyone find this behavior on the part of the armed forces surprising?