![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
What he said
"Abu Ghraib emerged from a structure developed by senior officials in the Bush White House and by those who thought it was necessary to blindly advance the Bush administration's goals," the General declared. "Abu Ghraib was not just happenstance. It was a morbid consequence of a policy that emanated from the Office of Legal Counsel and the Justice Department."
According to Taguba, these failures not only constitute war crimes, but also have emboldened America's enemies abroad, leading to greater numbers of American deaths in Iraq.
However, far from being held accountable, senior administration officials have quietly ridden off into the sunset. Indeed, after seventeen high level investigations, army soldiers were signaled out for punishment despite presence of evidence regarding upper level officials' awareness and support. "Over 200 soldiers and officers were punished…unfortunately no civilian officials or contractors have been punished for their involvement," Taguba stated.
General Antonio Taguba.
Read the whole thing
Gen. Taguba has been going about talking about some serious issues, things which deal with the heart and soul of the army. Some of those things are why I walked away. I wasn't in any position to fix the broken, and was afraid I be commanded to do things I wasn't willing to do.
So... rather than stick with something the fun had gone out of, I left. They broke my army, and I couldn't stay any longer. There are a lot of things we, as a nation, have to come to grips with, and what we've allowed to be done to to the Army (or connived at the doing of) is one of them.
There are a lot of men and women, who are in the Army, and they are being trained to do things which aren't in keeping with the ideals which we teach them in Basic. If we don't fix it, it's going to come back to haunt us, if it doesn't bite us in the ass.
According to Taguba, these failures not only constitute war crimes, but also have emboldened America's enemies abroad, leading to greater numbers of American deaths in Iraq.
However, far from being held accountable, senior administration officials have quietly ridden off into the sunset. Indeed, after seventeen high level investigations, army soldiers were signaled out for punishment despite presence of evidence regarding upper level officials' awareness and support. "Over 200 soldiers and officers were punished…unfortunately no civilian officials or contractors have been punished for their involvement," Taguba stated.
General Antonio Taguba.
Read the whole thing
Gen. Taguba has been going about talking about some serious issues, things which deal with the heart and soul of the army. Some of those things are why I walked away. I wasn't in any position to fix the broken, and was afraid I be commanded to do things I wasn't willing to do.
So... rather than stick with something the fun had gone out of, I left. They broke my army, and I couldn't stay any longer. There are a lot of things we, as a nation, have to come to grips with, and what we've allowed to be done to to the Army (or connived at the doing of) is one of them.
There are a lot of men and women, who are in the Army, and they are being trained to do things which aren't in keeping with the ideals which we teach them in Basic. If we don't fix it, it's going to come back to haunt us, if it doesn't bite us in the ass.
no subject
Those are heartbreaking words indeed.
no subject
It's almost enough to make a guy feel pessimistic, even though we're obviously using "broken" to mean "seriously damaged" and "not as good as it has been in the past", rather than "totally non-functional". *sigh*
no subject
no subject
Pretty much anything the executive branch could touch was poisoned by Bush and his team.