May. 07, 2004 - 18:31 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

About It ?

Herewith excerpts from a column by Cokie and Steven Roberts in today's Rocky Mountain News.

Headed: "BUSH HAS ONLY HIMSELF TO BLAME FOR IRAQ SCANDAL"

"President Bush voices outrage at "those few people" he holds responsible for the barbaric treatment of Iraqi prisoners. But any attempt to blame this disaster on a handful of misguided underlings simply won't wash."

"We're sure the president felt "deep disgust" when he saw the photos from Abu Ghraib prison, but his own policies bear some responsibility here. He has repeatedly ignored international rules and legal procedures in dealing with prisoners seized since 9-11, and that attitude helped create the climate in which the lawless actions of American soldiers were permitted and even encouraged."

"Listen to Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick, who wrote home on Jan. 19 to express concern about what he'd seen while serving as a guard in Abu Ghraib: "I questioned some of the things I saw . . . and the answer I got was this is how miliary intelligence wants it done." In fact, he adds, intelligence officers "told us, great job, that they were now getting positive results and information." "By any moral code, civilian or military , Frederick and his fellow guards should have known better, but their commanders concede that they received no training in the international norms for prisoner treatment. In fact Frederick was so distraught that he looked up the Geneva Convention on the Internet on his own."

Then Cokie and Steven Roberts bring up some pertinent points. "How is it that an Amerian soldier, placed in charge of enemy captives during a highly controversial conflict, has to research the rules of war for himself ? What does that say about his commanders -- including his commander-in-chief and their regard for those rules ? Like many others, we've warned before that the Bush administration's disdain for the Geneva Convention is both shortsighted and self destructive, and these warnings have proven true. America's moral authority has diminished, while the risk to America's soldiers has multiplied. How will they be treated now, should they ever fall into enemy hands ? Democracy, as the maxim goes, is not a suicide pact. Terrorism poses a profound threat that must be met with power and determination. And new rules of engagement are necessary in fighting a new kind of enemy.

But the administration doesn't want new rules; it wants NO rules.

The treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib is not an isolated incident, it's part of a clear pattern based on a simple precept: the nation is at war, and whatever the president does to fight that war is justified.

Then Cokie and Steven Roberts touch on another sore point, "At least American soldiers are subject to a military chain of command. The possibility for lawlessness in Iraq has been greatly expanded by the use of civilian contractors for sensitive jobs like prisoner interrogation. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, rightly warns that "allowing private contractors to operate in a legal vacuum is an invitation to abuse." Soldiers like Fredrick should be punished for their actions. But they were sent into a volatile situation that they were not prepared for, and guided by a command structure that took its cues from the top: in war on terror, anything goes.

Cokie and Steven Roberts make a wise observation: "That war needs to be fought, and won. But it needs to be won in the right way. America cannot preach human rights to the rest of the world if it ignores those rights when they become inconvenient."

++++++++++++++++

I guess I pretty well quoted the whole column, but it is strung together, one point leading to the next, each so intimately connected to the others.

A thing that makes me wonder is, do those contractors have to bid ? Do they have to guarantee a humane level of performance ? Another thought that popped up in my mind, do these contractors have any ethics" do they have to guarantee a certain level of learning and professionalism, much better than anyone could expect. After all there are humans under complete control, helpless to prevent what happens to them.

Even if their bosses are contractors I feel that the contractors employees should be bound by military law and the Geneva Convention and subject to the same punishment as soldiers

I remember seeing on TV some time ago moving pictures taken during World War Two of Jewish people being herded out -- naked -- and carted away. Men, women and children -- they were not hooded. This thing in Iraq is worse yet to my mind, because the prisoners are naked and hooded apparently barefooted. Any harm to a prisoner can be attributed to that person's clumsiness, stumbling etc. I can't imagine being in a position like that, a victim to ridicule, unable to even tell that a blow is headed my way, how vicious, or when.

Cokie and Steven Roberts tie it all together and lay it out -- SPLAT ! Seems to me that our administration is floating down the rapids, not necessarily naked but blindfolded.

I think many of us see what is wrong, but what can we common people do About It ? . . . . . . . . . . .

Blog