Military scapegoats walk a well-worn path

[RickSp]

The policy of blaming prisoner abuse on the lowest ranking soldiers is nothing new. Scapegoating is a highly refined technique in the US military. The senior officers who gave the orders are promoted or transferred and the privates go to prison. The case of Lyndie Englan is only the most recent example.

It may be the U.S. military's longest unbroken tradition. When scandals occur, scapegoats are gathered from the lower ranks and offered for the sins of their superiors. Indeed, the term "scapegoat" originates from Mosaic law where a rabbi would select a goat to be brought to the tabernacle altar on the Day of Atonement each year. The rabbi would then confess the sins of all over the head of the goat, which is then sent into the forest — taking away all sins with it. Of course, the rabbis had one great advantage: The goat could not speak. The problem of the speaking goat occurred a few weeks ago when England pleaded guilty to an array of charges. It was an obvious fiction. Few seriously believed that England had either the wherewithal or independence to engage in a criminal conspiracy to abuse prisoners. Yet, for a shorter sentence, she agreed to carry away the sins of the generals with her to prison. Generals may be retired early or demoted in rare cases, but jail time is largely the province of the lower ranks. Indeed, it took a captured English major to seal the fate of Gen. Benedict Arnold in the first known crime of a U.S. general. (Fittingly, Major John Andre was hanged, and Arnold went on to serve as an English general.) True to tradition, promotion rather than punishment has been the fate of most torture-tainted officers in the Abu Ghraib scandal: • Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller has been implicated in the abuses at both Guantanamo Bay and Iraq. He actually ordered Abu Ghraib personnel to "soften up" the prisoners. He was made an assistant chief of staff. • Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast had knowledge of the abuses in 2003 as the head of military intelligence in Iraq and was accused of pressuring the interrogators. She was given a new position as the commander at the Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., where U.S. and foreign troops are taught interrogation techniques. • Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez was the ranking officer in Iraq and approved many of the interrogation techniques now deemed abusive. He was returned to his command in Germany of the prestigious Army V Corps. • The officer who oversaw interrogation at Abu Ghraib, Col. Thomas Pappas, was given a light administrative punishment.

Military scapegoats walk a well-worn path

And on and on it goes. Should senior officers from generals to the Commander in Chief be held accountable for their actions?

[ibm]

Quote by: RickSp ... Should senior officers from generals to the Commander in Chief be held accountable for their actions?

of course not.

just becaue you can't.

otherwise what's the fun of scapegoating?

Quote by: RickSp The policy of blaming prisoner abuse on the lowest ranking soldiers is nothing new. Scapegoating is a highly refined technique in the US military. The senior officers who gave the orders are promoted or transferred and the privates go to prison. The case of Lyndie Englan is only the most recent example. ...snip And on and on it goes. Should senior officers from generals to the Commander in Chief be held accountable for their actions?

They should be but they never are. It is very similar to the malfeasance in corporate america.... The management gets the gold and the workers and stock holders get the shaft...

got Enron stock?

[PatrickHenry]

Worse yet is the case of General Myers. He presided over the NORAD standdown on 9/11/2005. Then he was promoted to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...

Quote by: PatrickHenry Worse yet is the case of General Myers. He presided over the NORAD standdown on 9/11/2005. Then he was promoted to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...

I'm sure you meant 2001, right PH?

[PatrickHenry]

My bad...

[PatrickHenry]

Janis Karpinski was the Brigadier General in charge of Abu Ghraib prison. I remember the situation being that she wasn't allowed to pull the reins on the "intel" contractors who were doing the torturing.

Now she speaks with Marjorie Cohn after getting a demotional scapegoating. And she lets it all out.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/082405Z.shtml

The first time Karpinski got any clarification about the photographs was January 23, 2004. The criminal investigator, Colonel Marcelo, came into Karpinski's office and showed her the pictures. "When I saw the pictures I was floored," Karpinski said. "Really, the world was spinning out of control when I saw those pictures, because it was so far beyond and outside of what I imagined. I thought that maybe some soldiers had taken some pictures of prisoners behind barbed wire or in their cell or something like that. I couldn't imagine anything like what I saw in those photographs." Marcelo told her, "Ma'am, I'm supposed to tell you after you see the photographs that General Sanchez wants to see you in his office." So Karpinski went over to see Sanchez. She said that "before I even saw the photographs, I was preparing words to say in a press conference - to be up front, to be honest about this, that an investigation is ongoing and there are some allegations of detainee abuse." But Sanchez told Karpinski, "'No, absolutely not. You are not to discuss this with anyone.' And I should have known then," she said, "and I know that Sanchez was hopeful for a four-star promotion even then, in January of 2004. And I thought it had probably most to do with the election coming up in November 2004, and that this could really move the Administration out of the White House if it was exploited. So naively, I just thought, you know, they're going to let this investigation go and they're going to handle it the way it should be handled." Karpinski said, however, "The truth has been uncovered, but it's been suffocated and it has not been released with the results of the investigation." She added, "McClellan and Rumsfeld can get up on their high horse and say that there've been no fewer than 15 investigations that were conducted. But every one of those investigations is under the control of the Secretary of Defense. And every one of those investigations is run and led by a person who can lose their job under Rumsfeld's fist." "We're never going to know the truth until they do an independent commission or look into this independently," Karpinski maintains. "This is about instructions delivered with full authority and knowledge of the Secretary of Defense and probably Cheney. I don't know if the President was involved or not. I don't care. All I know is, those instructions were communicated from the Secretary of Defense's office, from the Pentagon, through Cambone, through Miller, to Abu Ghraib."

Rumsfeld is rotting turd in the office of Defense Secretary. And Bush keeps him there. These guys need a new Nuremburg Trial with a noose at the end.

[Mr.Vicchio]

Quote by: PatrickHenry Worse yet is the case of General Myers. He presided over the NORAD standdown on 9/11/2005. Then he was promoted to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...

I know Coach, personally. He's a very upstanding and good man. You're WAY off base with this one PH. WAY off base.

[PatrickHenry]

Quote by: Mr.Vicchio Coach

? Is this Myers' nickname?

Anyhow Karpinski had this to say about the scapegoating situation:

And the man, the officer who stopped requests for armored vehicles and stopped requests for protective vests to be prioritized is now the Chief of Staff of the Army, General Cody. He's a four-star. He was a three-star. He was in charge of logistics, and he disapproved any additional requests for vehicles or protective equipment for our soldiers. He was promoted. He is a four-star, and he is the Chief of Staff of the Army today. That's how Rumsfeld and the Pentagon reward people who are in agreement with them. I don't know how else to say it. Shinseki, who was telling Rumsfeld the truth - he was retired. Anybody who confronts this Administration or Rumsfeld or the Pentagon with a true assessment, they find themselves either out of a job, out of their positions, fired, relieved or chastised. Their career comes to an end.

So here's the deal. If the President appoints a complete numb nuts as Secretary of Defense, and you go along with his harebrained ideas as an officer, you get PROMOTED. If you try to tell the truth and be realistic, you get axed. But then we already have plenty of evidence for the dyslexia of this Administration...

[righthand]

Quote by: PatrickHenry Anyhow Karpinski had this to say about the scapegoating situation: So here's the deal. If the President appoints a complete numb nuts as Secretary of Defense, and you go along with his harebrained ideas as an officer, you get PROMOTED. If you try to tell the truth and be realistic, you get axed. But then we already have plenty of evidence for the dyslexia of this Administration...

Just like the mafia. All the gang must be promoted in sync.

I Google 'USS Liberty' weekly. This week ...

New director sets course for Naval Historical Center
by Jack A. Green ...NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER PUBLIC AFFAIRS


http://www.dcmilitary.com/navy/teste...s/36513-1.html

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- A new director of naval history assumed the helm of the Naval Historical Center (NHC) July 25 with the immediate goal of bringing naval history closer to the fleet. It was as a participant that he had his first brush with naval history. While assigned as Engineer Officer aboard USS Davis (DD 937), he was awarded a Bronze Star for operations associated with the salvage of USS Liberty (AGTR 5) after that ship sustained heavy combat damage in the 1967 Mideast War. A Master of Science degree in Computer Systems Management gained at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School led to further high-level staff positions in communications and information technology.

I do not know of any of the men on USS Liberty getting medals. He gets one for a salvaging operation. Keeping his mouth shut?

The "ship sustained heavy combat damage in the 1967 Mideast War. " A slander on men on that ship when illegally attacked by who?!

Now this man is the "New director sets course for Naval Historical Center". I see another myth coming like "unarmed US spy ship attacks ally"

[PatrickHenry]

Disinformation specialists are essential in the management of the Empire's military history. Gotta make sure that the skeletons don't get out of the closet, righthand.

[Mr.Vicchio]

PH, he was my fathers Squadron Commander. He babysat me and my sister while my father flew and my mother lay dying in a hospital.

He's a good man, and Coach is his Call Sign.

[PatrickHenry]

Vicchio, a man can be a good guy on a personal level and still be an absolute monster professionally. I am not denying your personal experience. And I am not saying Myers is a monster either. But nobody got tagged for the "failures" of 9/11, and Myers, who was in charge that day, got a big promotion.