JB
Honorary Moderator Emeritus
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2001
- Messages
- 45,907
It is eerie, but not very surprizing, how the actions in the Iraq prison look so much like the sort of "preparation for interrogation" that "POW Survival Training" included 50 years ago.<br /><br />The idea was (is?) to break the spirit and pride of the detainee/POW by the most humiliating experience that could be devised. The training was to prepare trainees to expect and successfully resist breaking down from such experiences.<br /><br />I considered such techniques inexusably fiendish then, and I do now. Back then it was the North Koreans and Chinese who used them. The idea that we would do so never occurred to me.<br /><br />But: That experience leaves me with questions and cynicism about what happened in Iraq.<br /><br />The allegations and the initiation of the investigation were released to the media on 1/12/04. Why is everyone so surprised? Why the allegations of "cover up"?<br /><br />I really doubt that the enlisted personnel who did this thought it up on their own. It appears too close to the same old script on intelligence gathering interrogation. I think they were following orders. But whose orders?? Military Intelligence, CIA or Standard Operating Procedure?<br /><br />Where does the "buck" stop? Harry Truman had a sign on his desk that said, "The buck stops here". GW, whether he knew about it or not, needs to publicly apologise to the Islamic world, strictly forbid such techniques, and see to it that anyone who violated policy or orders is punished appropriately and publicly. If policy or orders allowed it, they need to be changed and further apologies published. No scapegoats.<br /><br />The need to gather information with which to save American lives and protect our liberty is great, but it does not excuse sinking to such depths.<br /><br />In many cultures and in the hearts of many human dignity is more precious than life.