“Abuses an aberration, report says”:
The Army’s Inspector General reported Thursday that 94 incidents of confirmed or possible detainee abuse had occurred in U.S. prison facilities throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, but it added that the incidents did not result from “systemic” problems, even though a months-long inspection found soldiers were inadequately trained and lacked proper supervision and clear orders.
The report by Lt. Gen. Paul Mikolashek, presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hastily scheduled hearing, concluded that the abuses such as those at Abu Ghraib prison were aberrations that did not result from flawed Army doctrine.
Mikolashek and his team blamed 20 detainee deaths and 74 other reported abuses, including beatings, sex assaults and thefts, on “the failure of individuals to follow known standards of discipline and Army values and, in some cases, the failure of a few leaders to enforce those standards of discipline.”
Mikolashek’s 300-page report detailed failures at 16 prison facilities. But it said the individual abuse cases were not part of a pattern and involved only a tiny percentage of the more than 50,000 detainees who have been held by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon and the Bush administration have blamed a few rogue soldiers for the abuses at Abu Ghraib.
”These abuses should be viewed as what they are—unauthorized actions taken by a few individuals,” said the report, which went on to praise the majority of soldiers. “We found numerous examples of military professionalism, ingrained Army values and moral courage in both leaders and soldiers.”
Mikolashek said he had looked at broad Army doctrine and training, interviewed 650 soldiers and officers and visited more than two dozen military installations in Iraq, Afghanistan and the United States. [emphasis added]
And there you have it. Perhaps now we can concentrate on the vile, thuggish, fanatical headloppers who wish us all dead? Unless the other Olsen twin develops an eating disorder, I mean—in which case I realize all bets are off…
I watched part of the hearing on c-span (insomnia), and the performance by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) was breathtaking. He wanted to know the lessons learned from this exercise, so it would never repeat itself. And when the answer was constant vigilence on training and supervision, and unfortunately every large organizations has bad apples that turn up under stressful circumstances–Nelson harked back to some similar instance in Kosovo, and wanted to know the lessons learned from that situation. And over and over and over, he banged his lessons learned question–as if mankind would turn into angels, if only we would learn our lessons. This was an earnest senator trying to point out the failings of others like some old school marm, “I told you so, if you’d only listen to me, you would learn.” An incredibly thankless job, that of Army Staff Chief, and the IG.
Your faith in military veracity is touching. The Army asserts that these incidents are aberrations. Therefore, the assertion is true. QED. Move on.
At first, it was only a few bad apples in Abu Ghraib. Now the count has risen to 94 incidents in several prisons. Is there a number of such incidents beyond which there must be a systemic failure? Or, is any number acceptable as long as they are labeled “aberrations”? It looks to me like a system-wide failure in control. But the Army wants to blame the failure solely on those whose behavior was not controlled and wants to absolve their controllers. Both are guilty.
Update: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040723/D840NDN00.html
The Associated Press just reported: The Pentagon on Friday released payroll records from President Bush’s 1972 service in the Alabama National Guard, saying its earlier contention the records were destroyed was an “inadvertent oversight.”
But we couldn’t have another “inadvertant oversight” about “aberrations”, could we?
Your faith in military veracity is touching. The Army asserts that these incidents are aberrations. Therefore, the assertion is true. QED. Move on.
That’s correct. I find it helps me sleep better than believing every evil in the world is the result of US incompetence and or malfeasence.
The rest has nothing to do with my post. If it’s that important to you, start a blog and write up a post on it. Me, I don’t give a shit about President Bush’s 1972 National Guard payroll records.
I have faith in Americans. We are very careful about making sure that we’re doing the right thing, and that when some do the wrong thing, they’re punished. We’re so careful that other nations have been able to use our reticence against us. We’re so careful that we criticize ourselves needlessly at times. Therefore, if this report says it’s an aberration, it’s an aberration.
Conspiracy theories abound. It looks like an attempt to hijack the thread re: payroll records.
I’ll stick to detainees. Soldiers who abuse detainees are responsible for their abusive actions, and should be accordingly prosecuted. Supervisors (sergeants) of abusive soldiers should be held accountable for corrective actions not taken. Officers that do not have in place the orders and procedures to follow Army regs and the law, should be disciplined accordingly. (According to the earlier Taguba report, Brigadier General Karpinski was clearly over her head as her command was a mess.) From what I’ve observed, the Army has a disciplinary system in place, and while some chose to ignore it, they are being punished and/or prosecuted. (Apparently some believe harsher punishment, firing squads, for the Secretary of Defense, are in order.)
The Abu Graib abuses reportedly involved ~6-8 enlisted and NCO personnel and ~20 detainees. It was also widely reported at the time that there were problems earlier in Iraq, and in Afghanistan. Critics of the Army never suggested that there were only a few bad apples, and the Army’s response was to let the investigation go where ever it leads. And the Pentagon’s response was not to interfere, so there would be no question as to the fairness of the Army investigations. (Cover-ups require overt actions–inserting someone into the process–rather than letting them run the normal course.)
MarkN, you’re pronouncing the guilty sentence before hearing the evidence–or at least offering an answer to your own question–as to the number of incidents that indicate systemic failure. (What’s the acceptable defect rate? To characterize 94 incidents from over 50,000 detainees as systemic is to make such a word meaningless.)
Disagreemnt is fine, but since you do, then such criticism must offer a basis on which to make your case, not merely your assertion that your opinion is paramount. It’s called making an argument. Let’s face it you’re calling the Army Chief of Staff and the Inspector General liars, you ought to back it up with more than your say so.
well, I guess Bush/Enron! was getting old. nice try, MN. it’s long past time to move on. hey, are you implying that the other Olsen twin didn’t just go to pick up her sister at rehab and bring her home?!?!
You are mis-reading my post. I don’t give a damn about Bush’s service records either. The point was that the Pentagon makes mistakes, some of them quite obvious public mistakes. Sometimes it says something and then retracts it. To believe something just because the Pentagon says so is wishful thinking. After all, the Pentagon is a government bureaucracy and, like any other government bureaucracy, has asses to cover and funding to get from the taxpayers. It will attempt to put the best face on any of its actions.
Sleep well.
Will do.
Man alive, I slept like a rock last night ! All safe and sound under the umbrella of protection provided by our wonderful guys and gals in the service – and nary an aberration in sight. There was some ass-covering going on, though, since my butt gets cold without a blanket.
MarkN:
You are right to mistrust government bureaucracies, and anyone completely unaccountable for professional performance. Unlike any other government bureacracy, however, the Pentagon is held somewhat accountable for most of its failures by the simple fact that when the military screws up, friendly people die unnecessarily.
By stark contrast, when the American educational bureaucracy screws up, Leftists incapable of crossing supply and demand curves go around making ill-informed policy recommendations, and sometimes even voting in support of them.
Take heart in the fact that most of the people in the Pentagon want to get it right, and were at one time willing to be held directly accountable by our enemies’ bombs & bullets. Teachers’ Unions don’t even want their members’ pay to be linked to performance…much less their pulse.
MN:
Here’s some advise–when attempting to get out of the hole you’ve dug, stop digging.
Your wisdom regarding the motivations of bureaucratic institutions is not an argument, it’s a given. So what?
Blind accusations prove nothing. If it’s so obvious to you that the Pentagon lies, why aren’t you in Congress running one of the oversight committees? Surely that would fix the problem.
You doubted the veracity of the Army Chief of Staff and the IG, in their testimony before the Senate. Perhaps a retraction is in order, no?
I’m not happy about this. You’d be hard-pressed to find a greater supporter of the Coalition or a stronger believer in the essential rightness of what we’re doing in Iraq and the whole WOT in general. But twenty dead detainees? If the ‘abuse’ amounted to nothing more than hazing then fine, let it go. The guy with the hood and the fake electrodes: so what? But dead prisoners is bad.
I say this as someone who has publicly advocated the execution of the bulk of the population of Camp X-Ray, after arraignment, trial and conviction. If a military tribunal finds Faisal al-Jundie guilty of being an unlawful combatant, then hang him. But if the numbskulls in Abu Ghraib have hurt the war effort, then I’d put them on the same gallows.