As a retired E8, I can say with some authority that this "General" Officer appears to have spent her career (at least that portion in Iraq) sitting around thinking up ways to pass-the-buck and dream up excuses for being so incompetant. Neither she nor her Officers nor her senior Enlisted, it appears, ever inspected her command. Neither she nor her Officers executed command authority over their "misfits" and thugs masquerading as soldiers and, according to various reports and her own admissions, they were either ignorant of misdeeds, or simply ignored them, i.e.:the Sgt who got entertainment by frequently killing local animals with a tower-mounted .50cal, as well as others since made public. She displayed her serious and grievious lack of responsibility, leadership and command ability by whining and crying over failure of other commands to perform functions and decisions and directives that were specifically and militarily hers. This "Officer" deserved and should have been courts-martialed, reduced in rank and/or drummed out of the Service.
You got that right, this is pathetic. I don't know what jobs she had in her career, but she appears to be somebody who had do-nothing jobs her whole career and had no idea how to do anything when she got into a command job. The Army should be straight-up embarrassed to the point that they are re-writing the officer training and promotion criteria as we speak. This is unacceptable. Karpinski, her 4-star, and the Secy. of the Army should be standing in front of Congress in public hearings for this.
Totally agree, along with the battalion and company commanders, platoon leaders, CSMs, 1SGs and PSGs charged with the Abu Ghraib mission. The 15-6 report clearly shows a pattern of abject command and leadership failure. Her excuse that these elements of her command were "chopped" to another MI Brigade doesn't wash either. She and her subordinate "leaders" ineffectual and negligent style of command and control bely the politically correct promotion system infecting our military, and is especially evident in the Reserve Component in this case.
Yet, I suspect we have yet to hear the last of her. She will, no doubt, make the speaking engagement and talk show circuit hawking her book and will probably be hired as a CNN consultant in betweeen celebrity attendance at MoveOn.org protest events.