August 29, 2004

The Buck Stops At the Top

The Bush Administration has long claimed that the embarassing and internationally harmful abuse of detainees in Iraq by the U.S. Army resulted from a few low-level and over-enthusiastic enlisted personnel. But Long Island's Newsday, hardly a bastion of liberalism, editorialized today about the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, laying out the case for why the Bushies are just plain wrong.

Independent assessments of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib should lay to rest White House attempts to limit blame to a few bad apples on the night shift. A panel headed by former Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger found the Pentagon's civilian and military command responsible for conditions that led to "egregious abuses" at the U.S.-run prison. That includes Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. A separate Army investigative report said the involvement of intelligence operatives with wider latitude in interrogation techniques also contributed to abuses at Abu Ghraib.

But responsibility goes farther up the line than that: All the way to President George W. Bush.

"The abuses were not just the failure of some individuals to follow known standards, and they are more than the failure of a few leaders to enforce proper discipline," the Schlesinger panel said. "There is both institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels." Actually, at the highest level

Bush set the stage for abuse in February 2002 when he declared that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to al Qaeda prisoners and the Taliban were unlawful combatants unqualified for prisoner of war status. "When the man at the top says the rules don't apply, abusive excesses are a predictable result," says Newsday. The conclusion is unremarkable. What is striking is that, once again, no one in the White House or the Pentagon will admit to mistakes or accept responsibility.

In other cultures, government officials would have resigned immediately, perhaps even comitted hari kari. But not in the Bush Administration. No nothing, hear nothing, see nothing for these leaders. Rumsfeld even denies that there were any abuses during interrogations. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution concludes that "Rumsfeld refuses to admit it, but the horrors of Abu Ghraib lead right back to his doorstep." The guy's funny, but he's got to go.

 Posted by glenn

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