Accountability for prisoner abuse and torture
with the continuous revelations of prisoner torture and abuse, most recently coming out of bagram, there's a perspective that shouldn't be missed...
military personnel, from the chairman of the joint chiefs on down, report to the civilian commander-in-chief and his delegatee, the civilian secretary of defense... officers craft strategy and tactics under the directives of the civilians at the top of the chain-of-comand... the military has a system of accountability second-to-none but the civilians who call the shots have expressly and purposefully short-circuited that system... why...? because the moment higher-level military personnel start coming under the spotlight, there will be no escaping bushco's ultimate accountability... it's a grievous mistake to think that bush or rumsfeld sees sidestepping accountability in the military as a problem... it's not a problem in their eyes, it's the solution... it's not bush's lessons on accountability that have been learned well and emulated, it's his orders that have been followed well, very well... this in no way excuses the military, of course... we all are ultimately responsible and accountable for our own actions... but it is important to understand that military commanders do not see themselves as independent actors... Submit To Propeller
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military personnel, from the chairman of the joint chiefs on down, report to the civilian commander-in-chief and his delegatee, the civilian secretary of defense... officers craft strategy and tactics under the directives of the civilians at the top of the chain-of-comand... the military has a system of accountability second-to-none but the civilians who call the shots have expressly and purposefully short-circuited that system... why...? because the moment higher-level military personnel start coming under the spotlight, there will be no escaping bushco's ultimate accountability... it's a grievous mistake to think that bush or rumsfeld sees sidestepping accountability in the military as a problem... it's not a problem in their eyes, it's the solution... it's not bush's lessons on accountability that have been learned well and emulated, it's his orders that have been followed well, very well... this in no way excuses the military, of course... we all are ultimately responsible and accountable for our own actions... but it is important to understand that military commanders do not see themselves as independent actors... Submit To Propeller
Tweet
posted by profmarcus at
8/08/2005
