I too regard it as a breakdown but it it indeed also a fundamental flaw. You've identified the problem, now suggest a solution -- not one that would be nice but one that can realistically be applied and work.
Yep. Your turn will come......I guess you are just more cynical than I.
Telling is the choice of words; there was no 'hollywood' about it nor was there any question of 'tough guy' or any macho BS. Those are typical progressive or collegiate talking point words used in an attempt to belittle any non-metrosexual behavior in this touchy feely era.What is telling, incorrect, and irrelevant about it? Please explain.
It was incorrect because the interrogation rules were a calculated response to an extant problem. People who have been trained to resist ordinary interrogation measures and who are aware of our normal methods (all available in open source as are 90% of our doctrinal pubs) can and will resist ordinary measures and harsher methods can be effective. The major error was in applying that ability to use harsher measures to DoD. We can probably agree that was dumb -- we can probably disagree on the use of harsher terchniques by non-DoD agencies. I have no problem with that (and my cynicism again comes out because we, the US of A, have been operating that way since long before I went in the Corps in 1949...). Rumsfeld and Miller were simply applying needed rule modifications in Guantanamo and they should never have been applied to Iraq. That was one error, one of many.
Sanchez's error was in pushing too hard on Pappas for results when he knew or should have known the possible results of that push. I have no doubt about the culpability of all three but I submit that their goofs do not excuse the actual perpetrators who, as mentioned earlier, all acknowledged they knew what they were doing was wrong. Nor IMO, does their stupidity rise to the level of criminal activity; doing dumb things is not a crime -- may be grounds for action but not necessarily for criminal prosecution. Action has been taken in all cases. May not be what you or I would prescribe but it has been taken.
All that is irrelevant IMO because it has happened, is history and we're unlikely to learn much more from the events than we have to date and I see little sense wasting thought or effort on bemoaning things that can't be changed.
In your opinion? Possibly in the opinion of some others? I think it did all it could do within its own parameters (and would point out that some of the investigations are STILL ongoing). I suspect some of those adjudged guilty and serving time might not agree with you. Based on what I read, now Colonel Karpinski does not and obviously Sanchez thinks he got screwed. However, do recall I agree that too many SENIOR people got off too light -- it's the American way...The system appears to have resolved the issue as far as military detentions go, but although it failed to properly allocate justice to the guilty...
I suggest that it is in fact resolved but that you and some others do not agree with that resolution. Your prerogative. I have no hangups on it myself. Cynicism again......Yet continued justifications for waterboarding by civilian intelligence agencies seems to indicate that the system certainly has not fully resolved its interrogation issues across the government as a whole.
Been my observation that one can certainly have and state an opinion on anything but it's best not to go into prime judgment mode until one has all the facts and that one should always recall that if one hasn't had to do the job, it's probably too easy to judge excessively harshly. Wars tend to be brutal and messy and there's a whole lot of gray out there. Absolutes are rare indeed...
Probably. Most of the rest of the world doesn't have all the luxuries that we do -- including the luxury to be nice to ones enemies. Even we don't always have that luxury in practice though it can be assumed we do -- if one just reads about it in air conditioned stateside comfort...Sure. I've never been the man in the arena tasked with getting intel out of a detainee. Then again, I'm sure every torturer who ever put hands on an American POW would say the same thing.
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