So, Abu Ghraib Wasn't Due To A Rumsfeld Order, Huh?

[ProfessorGAC]

Suddenly, the whole issue has turned to two commissions deciding (one, btw, appointed by Rumsfeld) that the problems that manifested themselves in that prison DO NOT go all the way to the top.

How convenient!

The problem with this conclusion, and the subsequent "vindication" op-eds (like in today's WSJ) is that it's not a final conclusion!

Let's assume for a moment that Rumsfeld, Bush, Cheney, et al did not order such treatment, for any purpose. Let's also assume that had they known, they would have stopped such abuse. (I know, that's a stretch, but bear me out.)

What we have, given this assumptions, is a tacit admission by this administration that they have NO CONTROL OVER THE MILITARY! This MBA president, and his deputies, all of whom are supposed to be great captains of industry and organizers, have completely lost control over the single largest organization under their control.

Not one editorial i've seen extends the logic to this point. It uses the report as some sort of vindication that the higher-ups are clean on this. But, not one so far, has suggested that this lack of knowledge is a sign of INCOMPETENCE!

It's not a matter of "what did you know and when did you know it". It's a matter of "what SHOULD you have known, and when SHOULD you have known it."

The op-ed writers can spin this all they want and still use it to prove it was just a handful of bad apples. (2 bad apple, with the ranks of colonel & general. Hmmmm?) But, these bad apples operated above the law, beyond the reach of the people in charge, and with the belief they were doing the right thing. I wonder where they got the idea that this was the right thing. Another thing that makes me go "Hmmmm?"

These people want to run gov't like a business. Their claim is that they know how to run large organizations, but the largest, and potentially most dangerous organization under their control, is now completely out of their control? And, per the WSJ, that's a good thing?!?!?!?

Apparently, to the supporters of this administration, their is no problem with incompetence. As long as the intent was to do something one agrees with, it's ok to do it badly, in a grossly unorganized fashion, with little attention to the fiduciary and social duties inherent in the office.

Like i said, how convenient.
The Professor

[NormanConquest]

1. It's not just a few bad apples; the whole damn orchard is rotten!

Isn't it odd how nobody connected to this "CEO Presidency" seems to know what's going on below them? Rummy is starting to sound an awful lot like Kenny Boy lately.

They can't all be "out of the loop."

[YellowRubberDuckie]

2. When the current administration investigates itself...

Of COURSE they're innocent.
Duckie

[Jacobin]

3. but but but, it was like, er...spontaneous combustion!!

We all know exactly what happened. Rumfilled and * were DESPERATE to find all those WMDs and they started torturing anyone and everyone to talk about where they were.

Unfortunately, the UN and France and Germany and the rest of the civilized world were right.

To the Hague with ALL these fuckers and then to the gallows. They are WAR CRIMINALS.

[July]

4. Cheney ran Halliburton w/o knowing what they were doing, either.

Wink, wink.

Ken Lay didn't have a clue about what his minions were doing.

Condi Rice had no idea planes would be used to hit buildings. She didn't read the reports, either.

The Miami mob was just disgruntled voters that the R party knew nothing about.

See a pattern?

[ProfessorGAC]

6. That's Sort of My Point

These guys use incompetence as an excuse. But, i think it's just cover.

However, nobody wants to point out that incompetence IS NOT A GOOD THING for the people running the government to possess.

If more in the lazy media would point this out, they would have to stop hiding behind "i didn't know". Because the obvious follow-up question should be "Why didn't you know? Aren't you in charge?"
The Professor

[HFishbine]

5. Nominated

for home page.

[PATRICK]

7. All Bushco investigations

are disassociated from what the situation baldly requires. This isn't like some police force reviewing racist cops and whitewashing the incidents. The world demanded some truly national show of justice. Scapegoats, internal patching, parochial limitations, slaps on wrists, understatements, partial, limiting observations are a slap in the face to the whole world.

Which makes the US, insulated in its own untouchable delusion, the beastmaster of Abu Ghraib to the whole world and all law.

But the 911 Commission, and the Enron case etc., etc., etc., fared no better. There is no law in the Us under Bush. Only sham and fraud and insolent displays of careless cruelties and presumption. With everything to hide and no responsibility for faults ever to be taken.

The nation is smelling of the vomit of crowded prisons because WE are locked in that prison.