Spinning war crimes:
Stages of denial (any war, any army, any war crime):
1. First, ignore accusations.
2. Next, indignantly deny all crimes.
3. Denounce the accusers as enemy sympathizers, wimpy pacifists, impractical idealists, cowards, and traitors. Meanwhile, suppress all evidence by classifying it.
4. Admit that there are "troubling allegations." Investigate the crimes, forever, or until everyone has lost interest. Issue thousand-page interim reports, full of mind-numbing legalisms and sophistries. Alternately, never issue any reports; whenever anybody asks about it, respond, "the investigation is continuing."
5. Scapegoat a few people at the bottom of the hierarchy. Describe them as "isolated incidents" by a few "bad apples."
6. Scapegoat a few more people, in middle management. The top leaders are horrified about the abuse, and can plausibly deny any knowledge. If the scapegoats are true-blue team players, they will go along with this, to protect the people higher up. They'll be rewarded for their loyalty, later.
7. Admit that the war crimes were systematic, and ordered from the highest levels. Announce that everything has now been uncovered and fixed. "It's behind us, now." This works best, after the leaders have retired.
8. Admit that the war crimes were systematic and continuing, but are the "lesser evil" choice. If we torture and kill 100 people, respond by saying that our enemies have (or would have) tortured 1000 people.
9. If all else fails, say that we are in a desperate fight for survival, and cannot afford any moral standards of behavior. Scare people sufficiently, and they'll excuse anything.
Examples:
Iran-Contra was stopped at Stage 6.
Death By Container at Mazar-e-Sharif was stopped at Stage 1.
The beating to death "with blunt instruments" of prisoners at Bagram Air Base is at Stage 4.
My Lai ended at Stage 5.
So far, the torture and killing of Iraqi prisoners is at Stage 5. |
