What you posit is rank speculation.
Let the chips fall where they may after the appropriate investigation has taken place. Until then, I don't have the temerity to suggest that I know exactly who is responsible and how far up the chain of command knowledge of what was taking place goes.
I'm a lawyer, I know exactly how slippery facts can be and how important it is to not jump to conclusions.
Let me bore you with an example that took place a couple of days ago: I represent an engineer who did structural design of some columns supporting a multi-story building. There were structural problems, sagging of floors, a disaster. He was sued on the ground that his design was flawed. The owner's attorney felt, like you, that he had a lock/cinch case against my client, and seriously suggested that my client settle for a substantial sum in order to avoid the costs and uncertainty of litigation.
During pre-trial testimony of the contractor who built the columns, we learned for the first time that the top supports of the columns into which load-bearing beams were to be installed were put in backwards by the contractor, destroying the engineer's design intent. No one, unbelievably, caught this error. All of a sudden, my client is innocent, the contractor is in the soup, and the guns train on him instead of on the engineer.
The principle is the same. Get as close to the objective, real facts as you can before making a judgment. I have no doubt that the investigators who are looking into this are taking such an approach. The Taguba report is redolent with care and impartiality, though it is obviously only part of the investigation. I fully believe that the same care will be taken with further investigations even if only because the world is watching carefully and we can't afford to play games.
Keep an open mind, don't jump to conclusions until the facts are in, especially in complex, emotionally-charged matters.
I know I must sound patronizing, but you are clearly going overboard in placing blame before you know enough facts on which to make a sound judgment. |
