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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (131686)	5/5/2004 11:40:30 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 281500

A particularly pertinent Blog I found tonight.. Hope he doesn't mind my posting his comments here... He's a JAG for the 1st Infantry Division.. And I think his comments resonate for all our our soldiers over there: Sunday, May 02, 2004 Again I've been out of the loop for a while. Not because the internet has been shut down but because I wasn't able to find time to blog and then, with what's happened in the past few days, I've been trying to figure out what to write. The situation at Abu Ghraib is disturbing and disheartening to me. On Thursday I was able to watch the 60 minutes II story in our TOC with many of the other officers in my BCT. We were all shocked and disgusted by what we saw. It's obvious that this one incident will have a major impact on our efforts here in Iraq. Several thoughts have occurred to me over the last couple days. I'm sure that many of you are concerned that this is not an isolated incident but more of a pattern of ongoing conduct. I am not in a position to give any assurances about that. All I can say is that we have done everything possible to ensure that this sort of conduct is not happening in my brigade's detention facility. I have personally inspected the facility and ensured that the guards are aware of the requirements of the Geneva conventions and that the detainees are being treated IAW those laws. Believe it or not, things are slowly getting better with the detention issue. This incident highlights something that I taught all of my brigade's soldiers during law of war training before we deployed. The conduct of individual soldiers can have a strategic impact on our war effort. Because of the extensive media coverage over here, our soldiers have to be aware that how they act every day can have a dramatic impact on how our mission and the army itself are perceived by both US citizens at home and the broader international community. These soldiers have damaged our reputation at home and abroad. I think that the soldiers argument that they did not have the proper training and guidance is, honestly, a crock. Every soldier recieves yearly briefings on the law of war, an integral part of which is the proper treatment of EPWs/Detainees. The most basic rule is that you have an obligation to protect detainees and you don't abuse them or subject them to cruel or unusual punishment. You don't need extra briefings or rules and regulations to know that what they did is wrong. Yesterday when I was at the CMIC, I had a conversation with one of our translators about this incident. I told him I was embarassed and ashamed that soldiers would do such things. It recalls the kind of torture and abuse that prisoners received under Saddam. I said I thought this might create a rift that is too great to heal. He replied that this was not the kind of conduct that most Iraqis expected from US soldiers and indeed it may cause problems. But then he said that he knew that this was the result of a small group of soldiers and that he did not blame the entire US army for the conduct of a few. The difference between this incident and what Saddam did was that Iraqis expected Saddams regime to torture and abuse them and that they knew nothing would happen to the torturers. They know that we will punish those soldiers responsible. He said, "That is justice. And that is all we are looking for." I continue to be amazed and encouraged by the Iraqis optimism in the face of such challenges. Posted by: Eric / 8:06 AM daggerjag.blogspot.com