. . . from a former Navy Intel officer, now living in the Upper Midwest. This is my cousin, who gathered intelligence during the Vietnam War. He has a thing or two to say about the Abu Ghraib scandal.

I am not sure I agree with what they did, and I don't know if I condone it, but having been in the service during a war, I certainly understand it.

I cannot honestly say I feel bad for those prisoners. Having been in the field and collecting intelligence, I can tell you we miss out on a lot of good intel by interrogating as we do. I consider myself a civilized person, but a very rational part of my mind refutes the cries of the liberal do gooders (and many honestly good people) in thinking that when you fight people who follow no rules, you must win by following the rules.

I do not really believe that we stoop to the level of the terrorists when we employ their tactics. It matters not the size of our forces: the bad guys will eventually wear down the morale of the good guys by decrying their use of tactics the terrorists themselves use. With the press bombarding the public with negatives, it is an uphill battle to win against someone fighting with no rules, when you yourself are bound by civilized actions.

My biggest fear is that the press will scare honest Americans into self-destructing with all the negativity. Also my biggest dilemma is how far do we go into the rules (or non-rules) of the terrorists. A truly sticky problem here. According to some rules of war, it was a crime. More realistically, it was a horrible lapse in judgement by a bunch of young people in a situation most Americans won't experience even in their worst nightmares. In addition, the brass will engage in a full-court cover your ass (liberally stuffed with bullshit), and those few will suffer the brunt. Six ruined careers and probably six ruined families.

For what it's worth, it looks like some of the shit that getting thrown around is, in fact, landing on officers. And while we may never settle the issue of responsibility (that is, Army Intel vs. CIA vs. the MPs) in a totally satisfactory way, the rest of the world is seeing the U.S. reacting to this, including Congressional hearings. The Arab world saw the President of the United States offer an apology. Much as that action may defy logic in some bloggers' minds, it made a big impression on many observers, a few of whom asked, "hey--how come our leaders never say they're sorry?"

It's a good question, and one for which even Al-Jazeera doesn't seem to have a real answer.

Posted by: Attila at 04:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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