The 'fog of investigations'
WaPo article by Josh White today:
- An Army inspector general's report has cleared senior Army officers of wrongdoing in the abuse of military prisoners in Iraq and elsewhere, government officials familiar with the findings said yesterday.
White's piece notes that Brig. Gen Janis Karpinski is the only flag officer so far to have been recommended for punishment.
The article also provides a brief and generally clear summary of all the many previous (and deeply overlapping) " investigations" the military has carried out over the past year into the abuse/torture of detainees.
Clausewitz, of course, was the person who famously coined the phrase "fog of war". I sometimes think that what the Penatgon's high-ups have achieved by organizing these numerous overlapping investigations has been to create "the fog of investigation".
But maybe I'm too cynical.
What I do know is that there has been nothing like the clear, unequivocal leadership that has been needed from every civilian and military portion of the US national command structure that states flat-out that no act of torture or abuse will be tolerated!; that any suspected instances of abuse or torture will be investigated immediately, and any guilty party punished!; and that the Geneva Conventions and other essential humanitarian-law protections for detainees remain our sole standard!
Those kinds of clear leadership actions are what I was calling for in May and June of last year when I was writing a lot about the need for a clear posture of zero tolerance for torture. Here, or here, or here.
The Bushies, though, chose not go that route. Now, I know full well that as I write this, US government employees and contractors somewhere around the world are abusing and torturing detainees-- on my tax dollar. It makes me sick to my stomach. It also makes me think more seriously than before about trying to become a war tax resister.
An objectice look at U.S. foreign policy reveals, upsettingly, that there are few times when principle has guided policy.
The American commitment to human rights extends not much further than its rhetorical value. Just look at Latin America.
Is there any principled military leadership? Is there any principled political leadership with enough influence to shape policy? Or is our international affairs apparatus morally bankrupt?
Excuse me: "objective," not objectice.
a couple of items:
1. for trustworthy info on war-tax resisting goto:
http://www.warresisters.org/how_to_resist.htm
http://www.hanguponwar.org/
2. for "principled military leadership" goto xyz dictionary and find "oxymoron" under syn.
3. repeat 2.[above] for "principled political leadership"
"US government employees and contractors somewhere around the world are abusing and torturing detainees-- on my tax dollar"
Your tax money used to lunch illegal war Helena, US citizens should all standup against this war which will cost more money from US tax payers not from big fat US enterprises.
your tax money used for "dying or severely injured Iraqis who learned the hard way what the "transition to a democratic society" is all about, and menacing Special Forces guys, who Roberts claims are the next best thing to serial killers- men completely devoid of conscience, trained to kill on command and live like rats, if necessary."
A War Against Truth
http://www.epinions.com/content_177102622340
"People have been writing to ask what they can do to help the Iraqi people"
Read how you can help Iraqis from this war illegality, destruction, shame on the invaders and collective shame shared by so manyfrom your country
THe U.S. government will probably care about Iraqi casualties when Iraqis vote in U.S. elections.
Since this war is being financed with borrowed money it may be future taxpayers that actually pay for much of it.
You can also resist all of your federal income tax legally and without having to adopt some wacky quasi-legal theory. A third of those who file taxes in the U.S. live under the federal income tax line (file that away in your "little known fact" folder). All you have to do to resist is become one of them.
See http://www.sniggle.net/Experiment/ for details.