A military administrative disciplinary proceeding in Germany reprimanded and fined Army Col. Thomas Pappas $8,000. Brig. Gen. Janice Karpinski was demoted to colonel. Somehow seems insignificant given the damage it did to America’s image in the middle East.
Military punishes key Abu Ghraib scandal figure, Reuters
We were supposed to be the white hats, the good guys, weren’t we? Don’t we have a higher standard than butt pyramids, sexual abuse and humiliation?
But it rises far above that level. You might also consider that there have been a spate of suspicous deaths of detainees as well, mostly beaten to death.
Those 33 were just the ones the military will admit to. You can be damned sure there are more that never made it up the chain of command.
Some have pointed out that it’s some form of payback or retribution for hostage executions. Which would you prefer, beheading with a dull sword or to be beaten to death? Seems like pretty much a toss up there, doesn’t it?
The argument has also been made that awful things just happen during war. Yes that’s the nature of war and why we should avoid war and not go rushing in with a Yee-haw and a “bring ‘em on”. In my mind, that’s not the basis for a sound long-term foreign policy in the middle east. It’s these types crimes that fuel the insurgency and erodes support on the ground for American forces in Iraq. Rumsfeld should have ordered Abu Ghraib demolished as soon as the first allegations surfaced 2 years ago. It would have show the Iraqi people that we are not like Saddam, and the past has been swept away.
At any rate it’s Bush, Rumsfeld and Gonzalez who should be held accountable, not some piddling colonel. I might buy that if abuse were limited to this one site, but there’s evidence of the same shameful behavior in Afghanastan and Gitmo. It’s the command environment from the top that encouraged this behavior, not some middle level manager. The buck stops where?
