Military newspaper blames Rumsfeld, Myers for "professional negligence"

[MORTARDUDE]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...0001&printer=1

Military newspaper blames Rumsfeld, Myers for "professional negligence"


WASHINGTON (AFP) - A leading military newspaper said that US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld set the tone for the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq (news - web sites) by refusing to give captives rights due prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.


"This was a failure that ran straight to the top," said the editorial appearing in the May 17 edition of the Military Times weeklies.


"Accountability here is essential -- even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war," it said.


Owned by Gannett, the Military Times publishes the Army, Navy and Air Force times, weeklies that are widely read by servicemembers and distributed on US military bases around the world.


The editorial said the soldiers caught in photographs and videos abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison are referred to around the Pentagon (news - web sites) as "the six morons who lost the war."


"But the folks in the Pentagon are talking about the wrong morons," it said.


Responsibility, it said, "extends all the way up the chain of command to the highest reaches of the military hierarchy and its civilian leadership."


"The entire affair is a failure of leadership from start to finish," it said.


"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld set the tone early in this war by steadfastly refusing to give captives the rights accorded to prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention," it said.


"From the moment they are captured, prisoners are hooded, shackled and accorded no rights whatsoever. The message to the troops: Anything goes."


The editorial also faults General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for trying to persuade CBS television to refrain from airing the images while failing to read the army's own damning internal report detailing the abuses.


"On the battlefield, Myers' and Rumsfelds' errors would be called a lack of situational awareness -- a failure that amounts to professional negligence," it said.

[darrels joy]

The entire editorial is here...
http://www.armytimes.com/

Where you will also find...

Top News
First prisoner-abuse court martial to start next week
BAGHDAD, Iraq ? The first in a series of courts-martial in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse allegations will begin next week, trials that could bring new revelations on whether the mistreatment of Iraqis was an aberration or stemmed from pressure from commanders. (more)

Prison abuse report
Read the report on the Article 15-6 investigation of prisoner abuse by the 800th Military Police Brigade at Abu Ghraib Prison, Iraq. Read the rebuttal by defense counsel.

[SuperScout]

Having missed the obvious in earlier discussions and other threads on the subject matter of prisoners and alleged abuse, I hasten to add that The Geneva Conventions and attendant behavior demands on belligerent forces does not apply in this case. Perhaps it is a fault of the framers of that document that clairvoyance was not a gift at the moment, but non-governmentally sponsored militants aren't covered by the Convention. Having said that, I'm not going to approve or condone torture as a common-everyday practice in the Coalitions prisons, but what we have thus far witnessed is far removed from torture. Torture is seeing your daughter falling from the 87th floor of the World Trade Center because the heat was too intense for her to bear. Torture is seeing your deskmate at the Pentagon burned beyond recognition because he couldn't get out fast enough. Torture is hearing your brother making a last-minute cellphone call right before his flight slammed into the ground in Pennsylvania.

Perhaps a historical research trip would be illuminating here, to see if the Military Times pukes called for the resignation of the Secretaries of Defense during the Vietnam War, the disaster in Mogadishu, the seizure of the USS Pueblo, the attack on the USS Liberty and other calamities that were truly damaging to the security of America.

[MORTARDUDE]

well no reason for me to post anything else as joy always has an answer. sayonara...vote for these bozos if you like.

Larry

[colmurph]

Simple answer is to pull the newspaper from the PX's around the world. It's a private paper that enjoys exclucivity in base exchanges but looks like they have overstepped the bounds. Sell it on the streets but don't call it "Army Times" any more. It's obviously has stopped supporting the Army.

[SuperScout]

Just sent the Army Times an email/letter to the editor, basically informing them that they were as full of fecal matter as the proverbial Christmas turkey.

Regarding the upcoming court martial, I predicted to my beautiful wife last night that this first guy was going to be offered a deal, and then he was going to "roll over" on the others; you can almost hear the rectal orifices slamming shut even as we speak!