Slate buddy Phil Carter is one of the few who's flagged the Army report released, ahem, Friday afternoon that somehow cleared top officers of any responsibility in the prisoner torture/abuse scandal. As Phil points out, the issue isn't whether commanders ordered the abuse:
In the Army's leadership schools for officers and sergeants, the doctrinal
manual preaches quite a different result from the outcome of this investigation.
Bottom line: commanders (and NCOs) are responsible for everything their unit(s)
do or fail to do, period. A commander, especially a general officer, is not just
responsible for those things he/she ordered, but for those things that he/she
knew about — or should have known about.
Phil then goes on to quote from the Fay report, which pegged top officers (but didn't have any power beyond simple naming-and-shaming):
I find that LTG Sanchez, and his DCG, MG Wojdakowski, failed to ensure proper
staff oversight of detention and interrogation operations.
That's Sanchez, as in Ricardo Sanchez known for such roles as the top commander in Iraq. To put in simpler terms, let's turn to USAT from back in August: "PANEL: TOP OFFICIALS PLAYED ROLE IN ABUSE." That's actually a reference to another report--the independent panel headed by former Defense secretary James Schlesinger-- which didn't limit its finger pointing to commanders Iraq. From USAT
Schlesinger, who was named by Rumsfeld to head
the panel, said commanders in Iraq bore responsibility for failing to
enforce discipline. The responsibility goes up the chain of command
"all the way to Washington," he said at a Pentagon news conference.
"These failures of leadership helped to set the
conditions which allowed for the abusive practices to take place," said
Tillie Fowler, a former Republican congresswoman from Florida who was
on the commission.
Back to Phil's insight:
Despite these [the reports'] findings, none of the officers responsible
for facilitating these abuses will face criminal charges. Or, put another way,
the Army IG has wholly disregarded the record evidence before him to arrive at
an arbitrary and capricious decision that the senior Army leaders involved
should face no legal consequences for their actions. What kind of message does that send to our junior military leaders? What kind of
message does that send to the world?
That strikes me as absolutely right--and important. And call me naive (or strident, or boring), but I'm surprised this hasn't been flagged much elsewhere--certainly not in the papers. This report is just another in a stream; it's the Army's official investigation official investigation. And means Sanchez and others are home free.
So the largest military-based scandal of at least of the year and perhaps the decade--one that generated reams and reams of coverage--has now been swept under the rug. It's yesterday's news as is the empty promise to hold officers accountable. Which reminds me:
"We will
find the truth; we will fully investigate. The world will see the
investigation and justice will be served." - President Bush, May 5, 2004.