[Vision2020] Accountability for Abuse

[Tom Hansen]

Greetings Visionaires -

>From the October 24, 2005 edition of the Army Times.

Assuming the moral high ground, as the American people have sought
throughout our proud history, involves more than treating detainees and POWs
humanely.  It involves full accountability for the wrongs.

The ranks of those personnel who should be held accountable for the
atrocities at Abu Ghraib and Afghanistan far exceed the staff sergeant
presently serving hard time at Fort Leavenworth.

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Accountability for abuse

The Army's top soldier recently said the troops are properly trained in the
rules and procedures for handling detainees, although unpredictable
circumstances sometimes require that they use their ?best judgment.? 
"And that's what leadership [and] experience will take care of," Gen. Peter
Schoomaker, chief of staff, told Army Times in an exclusive interview.

Indeed, that's the way it is supposed to work: Officers and senior NCOs are
vested with the responsibility to ensure that the junior troops heed all
rules, whether they fall under the Geneva Conventions, Uniform Code of
Military Justice or other laws and regulations. When their troops fail in
this, their leadership shares responsibility.

But that's not the way it has worked in any of the high-profile
detainee-abuse cases that have come to light in Iraq and Afghanistan. Almost
without exception, the troops publicly held accountable in those cases have
been junior enlisted soldiers, sailors or Marines. Nine enlisted soldiers
were publicly court-martialed for the abuses at Abu Ghraib. Eight received
prison time, with sentences ranging from six months to 10 years. The few
officers disciplined were dealt with administratively, out of the public
eye. None was jailed.

In the death of a detainee at Camp Whitehorse, Iraq, one Marine major was
court-martialed and dismissed from the Corps for dereliction of duty and
maltreatment under his command. He was not sentenced to serve time. The
other Marine court-martialed was a sergeant, who was busted down in rank and
given 60 days restriction and hard labor.

Unlike more than a dozen junior troops still facing courts-martial in
detainee-abuse cases in the war zone, no senior commanders have been singled
out for such prosecution. 

Claims that these episodes of abuse are isolated cases have lost all
credibility as more allegations surface. And they will continue to soil the
image of the United States and of American troops until senior leadership
gets serious and orders true accountability among commanders for cruelty in
the ranks.

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Take care, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

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