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Originally Posted by fj bertrand
When I was a young army reserve 2lt. being trained by WWII officers on the code of conduct, it was drilled into me that I was responsible for everything my troops did and failed to do. I learned that back in 1968. Subsequently, I did, over my 27 year military career heed those words.
Yet, it seems today, our military is being torn apart by legalesse that commanders are "responsible" for their troops action, yet not "culpable." I cannot fathom that the military is allowing lower enlisted ranks take the fall for Abu Ghraib while the O-6's and above get to retire with all the embellishments of rank and not any "culpability" for misleading orders, confusion and dereliction of duty. These rank worse, in my opinion, than VietNam. At least they nailed Calley(1lt) and Medina(cpt). I hope this torture and sadism thing goes up a little higher than present. Reading the pdf's of the reports is demoralizing and makes me ashamed to be a vet of the Army of the United States (Reserve, retired)
What a blot on the fine military lower ranks we have and shame, shame on the higher ups, from O6 to O10.
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I could not agree with you more. I read an article the other day in which a colonel who would not reveal his identity for obvious reasons said that the report is a whitewash and the real responsiblity goes right to the top, because the planning for the occupation did not provide for enough troops and did not provide for the right kind of troops, and the constant changing of long-standing Army policy towards the handling of prisoners by Rumsfeld himself lead to an atmosphere of confusion and grey areas that never existed before. The war planned and executed by military officers was brillant, the occupation totally planned and executived by Rumsfeld and his civilian deputies, especially Feith, Cambone and Wolfowitz, aided by a compliant Gen. Sanchez was totally botched and Abu Garib is just part of the total abortion they have made of Iraq. They are all going to avoid culpability by blaming it on the common soldiers caught up in this mess. Vets ought to be thinking about that, happening in the present, instead Bush wants you to be distracted about how many pieces of shrapnel Kerry did or did not pick out of his ass 35 years ago.