[Vision2020] Tell Abu Ghraib Truth

[Tom Hansen]

Although some of you may interpret the following letter as a lack of
responsibility and accountability by a lower enlisted member of the Army,  I
look at it beyond the words typed on a page.

Yes.  Others were held accountable (to some negligible degree) and assumed
some minute level of responsibility.  A general was reassigned.  A colonel
was forced into early retirement. A staff sergeant, a number of sergeants,
and several other lower enlisted members are currently being clothed and
quartered at the Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.  Those
officers that gave the orders, or turned a blind eye to the truth, were no
less guilty. 

>From the Letters section of the June 11, 2007 edition of the Army Times -

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Tell Abu Ghraib Truth

On March 3, 2003, in the town of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, Pvt. Jessica
Lynch was doing her job when a bad thing happened.

When the Army learned that one of our soldiers was badly wounded and being
held prisoner, instead of attempting a rescue as soon as possible, they
waited in order to make a spectacle of the event. The Army then made up a
story and everyone believed the Army - it would never lie.

Between October and December 2003 in a prison named Abu Ghraib in central
Iraq, soldiers with the names [Spc. Megan] Ambuhl, [Sgt. Santos] Cardona,
Cruz, [Sgt. Javal] Davis, [Pfc. Lynndie] England, [Staff Sgt. Ivan]
Frederick, [Spc. Charles Graner], [Spc. Sabrina] Harman, [Spc. Roman] Krol,
[Spc. Jeremy] Sivits and [Sgt. Michael] Smith were doing their jobs and bad
things happened. To protect appearances, the Army destroyed evidence and
soldiers were ordered not to cooperate with investigators. The Army then
made up a story and everyone believed the Army - it would never lie.

On April 22 2004, near Manah in eastern Afghanistan, Cpl. Pat Tillman was
doing his job when a bad thing happened. To protect appearances, the Army
destroyed evidence and soldiers were ordered not to cooperate with
investigators. The Army then made up a story and everyone believed the Army
- it would never lie. 

Recently in front of Congress we learned that in the cases of Lynch and
Tillman, the stories the Army told the world were nothing more than lies
["Tillman family, Lynch testify before Congress: Officers could be punished
for falsifying account," May 7]. 

The world knows the story the Army told about Abu Ghraib was not the truth.

When is the Army going to accept responsibility and acknowledge that the
soldiers at Abu Ghraib were following lawful orders from competent
authority?

Former Spc. Charles Graner
U.S. Disciplinary Barracks,
Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime." 

--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.