"..A military investigation in late summer 2003 of the 800th Military Police Brigade under Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller found a breakdown in discipline at the prison. When told that her troops were not even saluting, the general refused to order them to begin doing so. Central Command, concerned about the breakdown but apparently worried about disciplining one of the highest ranking female Army officers in Iraq, devised a compromise bureaucratic solution to hand control of the critical central interrogation prison at Abu Ghraib to the military intelligence unit questioning the prisoners..."
This was well before the abuse scandal broke.
"But it also probably had to do with the ease with which the Military Intelligence command was able to usurp and override her authority..."
No usurpation involved, her incompetence made it necessary.
" There are others responsible here.. Sanchez, most probably.... Miller, by all reports, another.. Taguba himself, may be covering his own butt as well.."
Probably...by all reports..may be....
The unit is operating in a war zone.. while it may not be the front lines, it is still considered proper, even recommended, that officers not be saluted under wartime conditions..
It identifies leaders to the enemy, and affords them opportunity to take them out of the action..
In Iraq, where the enemy is engaged in guerilla warfare, there is no front line..
Saluting, even in a prison, could be dangerous to officers in command..
It is the concern of the Central Command, because they have their head up their asses...
They are so concerned with establishing their own importance, they ignore one of the long established principles of conduct in a war zone..
I don't know about any other "laxness in discipline" because news reports and comments from the pentagon are anally fixated on the whole saluting thing...
Forget that, and let's find out what the actual breakdown in discipline was.. ( like male-female fraternization ? any mention of that?? )