Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Cynicism About the Jordan Verdict

My cynicism is sure getting a workout lately.

Take the conviction of Lt. Colonel Steven Jordan, the highest ranking member of the armed services to stand trial for the prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib. He was not convicted of prisoner abuse, or of being a derelict officer. He was convicted of talking about what happened at the prison.

(Loose lips sink appropriations for new ships!)

And the real culprits all skate away. The Two-Star Dominatrix, MG Barbara Fast? She skates away, unencumbered by charges nor, it seems, by conscience. But some of us know the score. We know that her deputies, Military Intelligence Warrant Officers shown tuning up prisoners in the photographs right next to SSG Graner, are some of the most sadistic bastards to ever don the cloth...These criminals too, walk free.

The Army counted on the idiots of this country to buy the lie that a part-time Staff Sergeant ran the entire show. That a part-time Staff Sergeant was the ringleader of the whole sordid spectacle. They conveniently omitted from their explanation the real role of those Warrant Officers. And idiot America bought it.

Most Americans don't even know what a warrant officer actually is.

They sure as hell aren't going to explain that with a WO standing there, a SSG might as well be a PFC where accountability starts and stops. Scapegoats were sentenced to military prison, while war criminals, sadists and torturers walk free.

[H/T to Pale Rider. This post is essentially a summation of an email conversation the wto of us had on this topic, with some input from my husband.]

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