"besides those of letting some stupid low level soldiers be the escape goats"
I think ex-Brigadier General Janis Karpinski would beg to differ, per Wikipedia she "was reprimanded for dereliction of duty and demoted to the rank of Colonel on May 5, 2005", which of course also ended her Army career that year.
I would argue there's almost as much gross overstatement of how bad G. W. Bush was as there is overstatement of how good Obama is. Certainly a lot of people are coming to that conclusion, perhaps in part as we see so many examples of things that were bad when Bush did them that are somehow good when done by Obama. Bush's biggest crimes were beating Gore and therefore ending the Clinton era, and of course Governing While Republican.
I think ex-Brigadier General Janis Karpinski would beg to differ
Might be, but:
1) She did not get into prison and Colonel is not so much of a demotion ... (of course I do not know, what her part was in all this exactly and how much guilt she carries herself, so the demotion might be harsh)
You can might also see it not as demotion for tortures that happened, but a demotion, because it got into the open.
2) Also a Brigadier General was not the root of the problem. Just another escape goat ... a higher one, but not really high one. In my opinion, much of the administration in between and the minister of defense is at least also to blame. Also to my knowledge, no one of the agencies that where largely responsible for many acts of torture (more responsible in my opinion than many soldiers) did not get any kind of punishment.
This is a shame for the whole western world! From this moments on, we can not raise our heads or arise our voices against so called rogue-states or regimes ... because we act the same! Bending basic laws of humanity to our liking! SHAME!
Comments
"besides those of letting some stupid low level soldiers be the escape goats"
I think ex-Brigadier General Janis Karpinski would beg to differ, per Wikipedia she "was reprimanded for dereliction of duty and demoted to the rank of Colonel on May 5, 2005", which of course also ended her Army career that year.
I would argue there's almost as much gross overstatement of how bad G. W. Bush was as there is overstatement of how good Obama is. Certainly a lot of people are coming to that conclusion, perhaps in part as we see so many examples of things that were bad when Bush did them that are somehow good when done by Obama. Bush's biggest crimes were beating Gore and therefore ending the Clinton era, and of course Governing While Republican.
Might be, but: 1) She did not get into prison and Colonel is not so much of a demotion ... (of course I do not know, what her part was in all this exactly and how much guilt she carries herself, so the demotion might be harsh) You can might also see it not as demotion for tortures that happened, but a demotion, because it got into the open.
2) Also a Brigadier General was not the root of the problem. Just another escape goat ... a higher one, but not really high one. In my opinion, much of the administration in between and the minister of defense is at least also to blame. Also to my knowledge, no one of the agencies that where largely responsible for many acts of torture (more responsible in my opinion than many soldiers) did not get any kind of punishment.
This is a shame for the whole western world! From this moments on, we can not raise our heads or arise our voices against so called rogue-states or regimes ... because we act the same! Bending basic laws of humanity to our liking! SHAME!