Thursday, December 22, 2005

[1775 - Congress commissions first naval officers including Lieutenant John Paul Jones]

A Tortuous Path

When the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal broke, the President and his administration spin-doctors told us they were so shocked that Americans could behave in such a despicable fashion. The President went on Arab TV to tell the world that as a people we Americans just are not like that, and the terrible events of torture were just the work of an aberrant night shift at the prison that had disobeyed orders. That position was somewhat undercut at the time when we learned that the International Committee of the Red Cross had repeatedly complained of conditions at the prison the previous Fall, but we were initially inclined to give the CinC the benefit of the doubt.

Reports from the Pentagon Inspector General, from FBI files, and from a variety of reliable sources have established a widespread several year pattern of prisoner abuse in Afghanistan by US Army and Special Operations troops, a series of torture acts by US Marines in Iraq that involve dozens of men and resulted in numerous court martial convictions, secret CIA prisons and transfers of captives to friendly nations with a lot less reluctance to torture captives, and a continuing history of abuse and torture of the prisoners that have been held without charges or trial for several years at the Guantanamo Base Prison. We now have clear evidence that the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, the CIA and FBI Directors, the Attorney General, and countless other lower ranking PooBahs were aware of what was going on; they now defend their actions and seek further exemptions for the CIA to torture some more prisoners.

Anyone who has been in combat knows that passions run high, and there is no war in which all sides have not engaged in abuse or outright murder of prisoners. The assertions that Americans are somehow morally superior to the other societies on this planet, and immune to such criminal acts, is fanciful nonsense and further evidence of the self-righteous arrogance that characterizes the mind-set of our current leadership. What has enabled this Country of ours to field a more humane tradition in time of war has been a leadership that appealed to the better side of human nature, emphasized respect for the rule of law and decent treatment of prisoners, and swiftly punished offenders. When this President and his associates abandoned the moral high ground in favor of assertions of absolute discretion, and ridicule of international law, it invoked as a certain consequence the pattern of abuses that is now emerging. Having let this genie out of the bottle, it will be a difficult task to stuff it back in, but at least our leaders could be honest with us about the scope and seriousness of the problem. I am not suggesting that the President would deliberately lie to the American People about such matters.

William's Whimsical Words:

Yes I am.

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