John Weisman is one of the select company of writers to have had books on both the New York Times fiction and nonfiction bestseller lists. His acclaimed short stories have twice been selected for Best American Mystery Stories.
A former journalist, Weisman has worked in more than three dozen countries. His latest book, the shadow war thriller Jack in the Box, is now available in hard cover through HarperCollins/William Morrow, bookstores nationwide, and Amazon.com. Last
year's bestselling SOAR has just been released in paperback.
He can be emailed at blackops@johnweisman.com, or reached through his website, www.johnweisman.com.
So far as I'm concerned, the one unmistakable lesson of Abu Ghraib is that most of the individuals who wear stars on their collars are totally lacking in moral courage.
From Joint Chiefs Chairman Meyers on down the entire chain of command, the reaction of those at the top of the military food chain has been little more than spin, sputtering, and equivocation. Listening to them whine at the congressional hearings last week was like watching hour after hour of "Dead End Kids" reruns. Just like Leo Gorcey, and Huntz Hall, those witnesses "didn't see nothin' officer."
But that's not the worst part. The worst part is yet to come. And it's not those as-yet-unseen digital photos and videos that SECDEF Rumsfeld testified about.
The worst part is that, because the military leadership lacks moral courage, the grunts in the trenches will yet again be sold out. The guys with the scrambled eggs on their hats and the rocks in their heads (the condition is known as schist for brains, or SFB syndrome) will once again demonstrate to privates, corporals, specialists, and sergeants that there is no loyalty down the chain of command. None. Zero. Zilch. Not an iota.
This is the way it's taught in general's school: Whenever scapegoats are needed, One: find the closest enlisteds; Two: throw the book at them.
Now, let me be plain: there are seven enlisted personnel currently charged with abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib. If they are found guilty, they should be dealt with severely. Their actions have tarred America's honorable Warriors. What they are accused of perpetrating is unforgivable.
My point here is that the prosecutions should not stop there. But we've already begun to see evidence of how the Generals' Mafia protects its own. Instead of being threatened with courts martial, the officers in charge of the 800th Military Police Brigade have been issued official reprimands and what's been described as "career-ending" letters.
But wrist-slaps won't stop those SFBs from getting excellent jobs in the private sector. Hell, maybe they can hire out to one of the CIA front companies that provides interrogators and security personnel for Iraq and Afghanistan. That way, they won't be beholden to any chain of command and do as they damn well please.
The seven enlisted personnel charged to date won't be so lucky: they're facing hard time. Which is exactly what the officers should be facing, too. Why? Because officers are supposed to LEAD. Which means the officers of the 800th Military Police Brigade were derelict in their duty. They not only abandoned their responsibilities, they violated their sworn oaths.
The Taguba Report says that the 800th MP Brigade was "not adequately trained" for its mission-that is a LEADERSHIP issue. The report states that the 800th's "S-1 (manpower staff officer), Maj. Hinzman and S-4 (logistics staff officer), Maj. Green, were essentially dysfunctional but that despite numerous complaints these officers were not replaced." That is a LEADERSHIP issue. In fact this whole disgusting episode sounds like the mother of all leadership vacuums to me.
Harry S Truman, who had moral courage both as a Soldier and as a president, had a sign on his desk that said, "The buck stops here." So where does the Abu Ghraib buck stop? Certainly, not with the 800th's former CO, Brigadier General Janis L. Karpinski. She told every TV interviewer who would listen that she had no idea at all what was going on inside her command. And she made the claim with a straight face, almost as if she was proud of it. Karpinski is the perfect poster-girl for the Army of One. The question of precisely what that "One" is, I will leave to your imaginations, gentle readers.
Here's someone who, if the accusations against her are true, allowed a situation to develop that has thrown our entire campaign in Iraq into turmoil, and blackened America's reputation all around the world. Is there any hint that she'll ever face a court martial?
Nah. Won't happen. After all, this is the Army where a recent Chief of Staff decided that discipline and the Warrior spirit could be inculcated in the troops simply by having them wear black berets. (And look where all those berets got the 800th Military Police Brigade.)
But wait a second. The Pentagon points out that CENTCOM's Lieutenant General Gen. Ricardo Sanchez gave Brigadier General Karpinski a...Memorandum of Admonishment. That's a Big Deal, says the Pentagon. Really. Cross our hearts.
Big deal? It's paper warfare. Karpinski is already back in civilian life. She'll probably get a six figure book contract and be in demand as a motivational speaker. Maybe she'll audition for The Donald's Apprentice-II.
Meanwhile, back in Iraq, Major General Geoffrey Miller, the very same two-star who visited Abu Ghraib and subsequently suggested that those untrained, ill-prepared MPs of the 800th become involved in "softening up" the prisoners for interrogation, has recently been placed in charge of all of the military detention facilities in Iraq. He'll probably come out of this debacle with a third star.
Then there's General Richard Meyers, the starched, spit-shined, beribboned Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who negotiated with CBS to hold the 60 Minutes-II story about Abu Ghraib for two weeks (but forgot to mention that critical info-bit to his boss, SECDEF Rumsfeld). If Meyers had an ounce of moral courage, he would have resigned for blindsiding his boss and his Commander-in-Chief. Since he didn't, he should be fired. But he won't be. The SFB generals' Mafia will let him finish his term and then go on to make big bucks on the rubber chicken circuit.
And the serious punishment? Like I said, it's being reserved for the enlisteds.
