Posted on 05/07/2004 12:23:41 PM PDT by Momaw Nadon
Thank God for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and for his distinguished service to our country in this time of war.
We all want you to know that we enthusiastically support you and our troops!
Well, of course now, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller is doing just that.
Clever fellow; one of the Army's master interrogation bosses, making public statements of assurances.
I'd ask them, but they never answer me. I'm on the "B" (or lower) list.
The Army's position that no "direct order 'smoking gun'" can be found, is the proposition that the brass are testing to see if it will stick, and let the public's fury fall upon the narrower shoulders at the bottom.
Yet from a variety of paperwork and even Army news stories, the command climate that gave some officers and contractors the impression that what they were doing, was following orders --- that is the higher-ups' responsibility at all times to monitor and correct.
The brass who populate these particular chains of command, for the most part, were neither listening, nor attending to the wheel.
Several interviewees insisted that the MP and MI Soldiers at Abu Ghraib (BCCF) received regular training on the basics of detainee operations; however, they have been unable to produce any verifying documentation, sign-in rosters, or soldiers who can recall the content of this training. (Annexes 59, 80, and the Absence of any Training Records)
Master-at-Arms First Class William J. Kimbro, US Navy Dog Handler, knew his duties and refused to participate in improper interrogations despite significant pressure from the MI personnel at Abu Ghraib.
Keep up the good work sir !!!
The actions of the people in that jail are horrible. They've brought shame on themselves, the service, and the country. If this controversy destroys what we've worked so hard to accomplish, they will have made the deaths of so many people meaningless. They should be tried and punished for their actions.
From everything we know, Secretary Rumsfeld began investigating this situation as soon as he knew about it. He is not to blame, and I believe he will work to fix the situation. He needs to be given that opportunity to deal with these problems and continue the great work of winning this war against terrorism.
WFTR
Bill
Love Rummy and hope he stays right where he is.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1131464/posts?page=59#59Rush kept at that theme through his show today.http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1131295/posts?page=44#44
One of the reasons that I refer to the "Bush [still running 39% of the Clinton] Administration," is because President Bush still does NOT get it; that the various leftwing extremist social engineering doctrine within the war department of our government, are for political campaign purposes, but not for military purposes.
The boss and the brass continue to refuse to address how much they are responsible for the command climate for which they now accuse the lowest ranks with failing to get it right despite the unwillingness of their bosses and brass to get it right: President Clinton's debasement of the standards of conduct throughout our society and the military.
The National Education Association promotes sexual deviancy indoctrination that results in piles of naked people --- "not that there's anything wrong with that as long as there are consenting adults," while otherwise, we expect people to pull an upright moral code out of their hat and not engage in such misbehavior in the presence of others ... unless they are politically, correctly, "gay," in which case, federal funding like-minded un-limited governors knows no bounds.
Which gets back to the point: That the President and the chain of command are responsible for the boundaries and seeing to it that all under their command understand what the boundaries are.
The President did not, and has not, done that, with the exception of establishing a widespread public impression that he does not object to sexual misbehavior, nor sexual deviancy, at least until it affects his decisions so dramatically as now.
Homosexual behavior is not decent, yet he expects our members of the military to accept that it is decent and modify their moral upbringing to subjigate it to Pentagon directives, all the while individually saving the remainder of their moral upbringing in order to "do the right thing" and not cause anybody embarrassment.
The orders to our people, are, Give up your moral upbringing in areas where we say so, but still hold onto the rest. Failure to accept this cleavage into your souls, can and many result in your being charged with failure to obey a direct order. Now, with what remains, go forth and do the right thing no matter what other orders we may give you to the contrary, no matter what circumstances.
A command climate that has included, by order of the President, don't ask don't tell and compells that our people adopt situational ethics or else, gets just that, yet the commanders expect, when their intransigence and inconsistencies backfire, to have been kept informed anyway, by people who should know better.
"Do as we say, not as we do."
I submit that the moral code of our people in uniform, in the trenches, is under attack by their superiors who have set a poor example by failing to stand up to all the political pressure coming from the U.S. Government to not do the right thing.
The people now being charged by the military, by the President, are being charged for really, just one thing: Not doing the right thing.
That is regarded as a fair charge under God, if well-informed of what is the right thing to do and failing to ask forgiveness.
Well, the U.S. Government's position on what is the right thing to do, has been all over the map and every where else lost in extra-Constitutional space, over the last four decades.
There is so much that we do, that is right, that is based upon our upbringing, yet it is constantly under attack by the U.S. Government which still expects that it shall go forth around the globe and get the right thing done anyway.
All the while, eroding the traditions and worthy American Heritage of our good homes.
This thing that has happened in Iraq, is a blip that has "Pinged" the instrument panel on high, that this nation's government is in the business of supplanting its own situational ethics codes de jeur, for what once made this country great.
The moral code of our worthy upbringing is under attack, on the steps of the chapels at each of the military services' academies, and on the steps of our common law, and on the stepps where lay row after row of symbols of religion, marking the fallen.
All of that is under attack by the U.S. Government by Judiciary.
What you are charged with as being morally repugnant, has to be treated as being morally repugnant by the U.S. Government, but the courts are busy "finding" to the contrary. Except over there at the U.C.M.J.
The Socialist Inquisition in the civilian courts, is supposed to be carefully compartmentalized when you are in uniform, where you are expected to perform your duties on the basis of our once-noble moral traditions found illegal in said court system, yet still somewhat alive under the U.C.M.J.
The chain of command expects to train our people in uniform, to comply with the strictures of the Socialist Inquisition, while at the same time expects our people in uniform to adhere to traditions that were the basis for the structure of the U.C.M.J.
For a person in uniform, from whom we expect an understanding of the laws of the United States, to be ushered into situtations where their training must be thorough, and that includes much practice, to then be charged with failure to make us proud, is a bit much.
I find it morally repugnant to be hard on these people whose faces have made the news, without also charging the command with bearing the same responsibilities; because, one of our most important rules, under the rule of law, is equal application of the law.
The trials should start from the top; not from the bottom. Because some trial weariness will set in, and it will be a tragedy for the enlisted people, to yet again find their colleagues tried and convicted, yet the brass "relieved" by a loss of "political will," according to news reports somewhere down the road.
If the President permits that, he will not win the election, and he will lose much more.
Yet today again, the President failed to address the matter of holding accountable, the members of the chain of command.
The liberal media are not going to let that go, and whatever political guru's at the Pentagon and the White House, who thunk up the notion of leaving that out of today's "putting a strong face on it," have done George Bush no favors.
Exactly. And when the hangings begin, let's please include the 17 unnamed congresspeople (all of which are now puffing around in front of the cameras in a self-righteous outrage, no doubt) who failed to respond when informed of what was going on at Abu Ghraib many months before it became public.
What you are speaking of is loosely referred to as "our culture". I don't think the crap one sees on MTV or Jerry Springer - the American version of Dadaism - is truely representative of American culture...yet.
So I guess it's up to us "old folks" to show the kids the correct way, just like we learned from our parents and grandparents.
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