There are stories claiming that the photos were released to CBS because it appeared that a few enlisted were going to be scapegoated for more widespread practices. I don’t know what’s true yet.
I expected torture from our interrogators. As a USMC enlisted intelligence analyst in the 80s, I shared a building with our interrogative translators. We generally thought many of them were borderline sociopaths. Some were reduced in rank while I was there for burring Marines up to their neck on the beach in front of incoming tide. That was just against Marines, just in an exercise. I had no doubt that terrorist and insurgents were being tortured.
I don’t like scapegoating. I think it’s indicative of the worst form of cowardliness, dishonor and betrayal in leadership. I was once a target of scapegoating when my Captain thought he lost a Top Secret document. (It was later found.)
I don’t know how high this needs to go, but I strongly suspect that it goes to the top.
I think Rumsfeld’s “acceptance of responsibility” was no more a real acceptance of responsibility than that of Janet Reno after Waco. All it did was signal that no more General officers were going to be prosecuted. They know too much. He just gave them assurance that they wouldn’t be the ones scapegoated.
If Rumsfeld really accepted responsibility, it would include some statement like “I authorized them to…”, “I suggested that…” or at least, “I allowed…”. What he said was political BS.
I don’t like how this war is being half fought, like Vietnam – leashing Marines from finishing their job. This is just the latest example.
I would have preferred that someone stand up and say, “Yes, the behavior in these photos is a result of my actions or my mistakes. I’m working to limit it. Now either fire me or get out of my way!” But that’s a ridiculous fantasy.
I don’t blame CBS. I don’t blame the Administration. And I don’t blame some lowly private working in a zoo. I blame us, as a nation for being too fat and soft to prosecute this war correctly. I blame us for not assuming the strength to make a rational moral judgment of good and evil and honestly pursue a strategy for eliminating the evil. I blame us for the hypocrisy on the right, and the opportunism on the left.
Despite the depth and ubiquity of what I believe is the problem, I don’t believe our victory is hopeless. We just have to exercise the courage that is within us to recognize the evil of compromise, and strive to identify and eliminate it everywhere. Identify it in the left when they align themselves with anti-war anti-capitalists in order to win an election, compromising our victory. Identify it in the right when they judge our behavior by our enemy’s standards where it’s convenient. We have to have the courage to accuse our enemies in the harshest terms and to stand up to our friends’ cowardliness when they say we are “eating our own”.
If we’re going to condone limited torture of limited people, define it and stand behind the policy. If we’re going to fight this war, defeat the enemy with whatever it takes before rebuilding the country. I believe America will support it. I have hope in that.
How can he say this if it isn't true? For what reason would a man of Rummy's integrity fess up to something he didn't do? Doesn't make sense.
I don’t like how this war is being half fought, like Vietnam – leashing Marines from finishing their job. This is just the latest example.
Well, that one's certainly open for debate. If it's tactics you're talking about, I think your statement falls far short of being factual. If it's strategy, I personally would have none of this city fighting that I'm seeing every day.