Salon has an article that discusses the reprimand of Army Reserve Captain Christopher R. Brinson for his role as supervisor of Cpl. Charles Graner. Graner was convicted and sentenced to ten years in Leavenworth for his role as ringleader of the torture activities at abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
Salon focuses on Capt. Brinson's civilian job as deputy chief of staff for Alabama Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, probably because that links the story to the Republican corruption in Congress. I find that to be a weak connection. What is much more important about the story and is obvious to anyone with experience in the military chain of command is that the events at abu Ghraib were either directed from a high level (waaay above some Reserve Captain) or were a failure of the command structure at the very top to maintain control of the command.
Notice that the only officers who have been punished are Reservists. While Reservists do significant jobs for the military, they are not key in determining what the military does. Regulars do that, and carefully preserve their privileges.
This story is a strong indication that the Regulars are covering up for each other up to and including flag rank.
Abu Ghraib was the direct result of the expansion of decisions made by now Attorney General Gonzalez that prisoners are not subject to the protections of the Geneva Conventions and the resulting policies and attitudes as they were passed down the military chain of command from Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and the senior military command in Iraq. These people are throwing Reservists to the wolves to avoid personal responsibility for doing what they did. Capt. Brinson is too low in the chain of command to be significantly responsible. He is one of the Reservists the Regulars are throwing to the wolves to avoid their own career-ending reprimands.
No comments:
Post a Comment