[jwpjr]

I certainly do not feel he is responsible for what happened in that prison, any more than a high school principal is responsible for what happens in the shower after a PE class. All it takes is one weak link in the chain of command and everything from there on up becomes unreliable. It's a myth that bad things happening at the bottom of the chain of command always reflect a weakness at the top. This is especially true in the military where you have officers whose careers transcend numerous Secretaries-of-Defense and Chiefs-of-Staff. I would hold him responsible if he had handpicked each person below him in the command chain and that's not the case. I have a son-in-law who is a ranking officer in Central Command. He has been in the army for 15 plus years. Rumsfeld comes along and tries to modernize some of the ways of the military and if there's one thing ranking military officers don't cotton to it's changes in their routine! Their motto is, that's they way I found it, it worked for the guy before me, it will work for me. These career military officers have years and years invested in the the status quo. The last thing they want is for someone to make changes. That's why so few retired military officers do well in private life. It's one thing to have underlings who will be court martialed and shot at dawn for not following orders, but quite another when a union or civil service or the EPA or EEO comes along and supports an underling's refusal to follow orders.

[Milligan]

I had a conversation with a teacher in the teacher's lounge today. We talked about Iraqi Prisoner Scandal and the upcoming court martials. He is a young teacher. He doesn't understand why we have Gitmo, why aren't the detainees's called POW's, and how come these detainees can't have legal representation? Bush and his Administration are mean people. He had a real hard time understanding that our enemy does not wear uniforms, work in cells and they are bent to kill innocent people. He still has the old sterotypes about military personnel from Vietnam. Those MP's couldn't find a job out in the civilian world because they have low IQ's. Military rank and file like enlisted personnel who can follow orders without question. I didn't get mad at him. I told him my husband is retired military photographer. We felt the enlisted were pretty smart bunch. The officer's were glad to have sharp service member's under their command. But everyone in the Navy has noticed the low quality of recruits coming into Boot Camp. They might be bright but lacked discipline. Many came from homes and schools that did not encourage self discipline. They have been medicated with Ritlin and fatten up through out their youth. PC crowd discourages the RTC being verbally abusive or to humilate them in front of their peers. The co-ed recruit training was a PC disaster and they put that aside. The Military is a reflection of the civilian community.