[Vision2020] Soldiers Must Own Up to Detainee Abuse

[Tom Hansen]

>From the September 8, 2008 edition of the Army Times.

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Living up to Army’s values

Soldiers must own up to detainee abuse
By Major Nina Saeli

Each week, it seems, I read a new article on detainee abuse that has 
occurred in Afghanistan, Iraq or Guantanamo Bay, and I become more 
unsettled. I am not unsettled with what I am reading, but rather with what 
I am not reading. 

What have I read? 
I have read numerous statements from junior enlisted soldiers and junior 
noncommissioned officers giving details of the detainee abuse in which 
they participated or to which they were witness. I have read the 
occasional statements from junior officers that “they and their soldiers 
did not receive the appropriate training or get the proper classes” in 
order to be prepared to handle these situations. I have read the many 
statements from military legal officers that state the government failed 
to provide “approved tactics, techniques and procedures in detainee 
operations” and that there are “so many undefined rules and roles.” 

What have I not read?
I have not read statements from senior commissioned and noncommissioned 
officers:

• Acknowledging that they failed to provide proper detainee operations 
training. 

• Recognizing that they failed to seek explicit guidance when unclear 
guidance was given.

• Intervening early to halt or prevent the abuse of detainees.

• Accrediting the abuse to their own lack of command presence and emphasis.

• Taking responsibility for what their soldiers did or failed to do.

• Admitting that they failed to maintain good order and discipline within 
their units.

• Accepting that they fostered a command climate that allowed this type of 
behavior to be condoned, unchecked and unquestioned.

What is more troubling than not hearing these things come from senior 
military leaders is that I am not hearing anything at all from them. Their 
silence is disconcerting, especially as it comes after years of teaching 
and having been taught the seven Army Values: loyalty, duty, respect, 
selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage.

Who will defend their actions? I have read FM 22-100 Military Leadership 
(now called FM 6-22 Army Leadership) from cover to cover more than once. I 
am trying to recall any part of it that could be used in the defense of 
any military leader involved with the abuse of detainees. Which Army value 
would a defense lawyer bring before a panel, stating that this value is 
what influenced this military leader to allow this abuse to take place? 
None of the Army values could be used in defense of those involved.

Those who abused detainees cannot hide behind selfless service. There is 
nothing selfless about the mistreatment of helpless prisoners, many of 
whom were guilty of nothing more than being upon the battlefield as men 
and boys in a certain age range.

Those who knew about detainee abuse and did nothing to stop it cannot hide 
behind personal courage. There is nothing courageous about turning a blind 
eye to illegal activities, and instead hiding behind the shield of 
ambiguous guidance. 

Those who encouraged subordinates and peers to accept detainee abuse as 
part of the mission cannot hide behind loyalty. As soldiers and leaders, 
we expect loyalty first to the ideals embodied within our Constitution and 
laws and only secondarily to those with whom we serve. 

Those who deliberately hid the detainee abuse from others cannot hide 
behind integrity. The very act of concealment implies knowledge of moral 
failure. 

Those who allowed their subordinates to take the fall for their 
irresponsible leadership cannot hide behind respect. What leader can 
command respect when failing to acknowledge, if not their complicity in 
abuse, then at least their failure to properly supervise and lead? If they 
did not know, they should have known.

Those who blame others for the lack of written regulations and their lack 
of understanding and failure to apply military and international law 
cannot hide behind duty. 

Duty is no shield to protect these leaders and soldiers. Duty is exactly 
what has not been done. 

These leaders and soldiers will not hide behind a cloak of honor. 
Honorable service is measured by sacrifice towards the ideals of our 
nation; the torture and abuse of prisoners are not ideals of our nation, 
and service in the pursuit of torture and abuse is not honorable. 

What do citizens see?
Citizens see the beginnings of a breakdown in the basic fabric of our 
Constitution — most notably the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits 
excessive bail, and cruel and unusual punishment. They perceive the power 
of the gun in the hands of a military that includes individuals and 
leaders who claim franchise to take any action they deem necessary by even 
the most junior individual.

It is often said that freedom isn’t free, that it flows from the barrel of 
a gun. It bears recalling that it is most often taken the same way. 
Legitimate freedoms and rights, acknowledged by our country to belong even 
to those who are our enemies, and taken from them in the name of 
expediency and moral superiority, may as easily be taken from us if we 
come to be declared “enemies.” 

The Army Values did not become my personal values at the direction of the 
chief of staff of the Army. Rather, they were taught and demonstrated 
daily during my childhood by my father. He was not a military man, but an 
honorable man who taught me that with power comes responsibility. 

Within the military, I found a place where these ideals were expected 
daily, and where I have become accustomed to being in the company of 
professionals who share these ideals. I am disappointed that, in the heat 
of exigency, some have forgotten their training and their heritage and 
succumbed to the temptation to abuse their enemy in the name of obtaining 
information.

I have never claimed to be the perfect leader, just as many reading this 
have likely never claimed to be the perfect leader. Still, I have faith 
that most of my brothers and sisters in uniform will make honorable 
decisions. I believe most of them do every day. 

I also realize there are those who will inherently lack honor. It was 
always my hope that I would not find them in uniform. Sadly, I have been 
mistaken.

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The writer of this article has been an active-duty officer for 16 years. 
She completed her graduate degree in homeland security with a 
concentration in emergency disaster management.    

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom "Retired, But Still Serving" 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.


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