Commanders responsible, whether prison abuse
was a sadistic amusement or interrogation technique.

From the Houston Chronical editorial board:

Six low-ranking soldiers have been found guilty of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. One brigadier general was reprimanded. However, a report by the Pentagon's inspector general exonerates senior U.S. commanders in Iraq from all wrongdoing.

It remains to be proved whether the abuse at Abu Ghraib was the private amusement of some soldiers or whether they were encouraged to mistreat prisoners in order to get them to talk. Either way, the high command in Iraq bears steep responsibility.

What kind of Army allows a band of enlisted personnel to turn an entire military prison into a sadistic amusement park, as England claims? If Graner is right, instead, then senior commanders are even more culpable for not mandating humane treatment of prisoners and relieving any officer up and down the line who failed to see that order carried out.

Click here for the rest.

What amazes me is that the Chronicle is too afraid to simply say that the entire chain of command, from the White House on down, approved of this. If Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez's pro-torture briefs written while he was the President's counsel don't indicate that the top brass encouraged this kind of thing, I don't know what will. Video of Bush ordering it? Obviously, that's not likely. But evidence keeps coming out, anyway. Here is a collection of examples. At any rate, the Chronicle is right to observe that whether this was ordered or not, it happened on the watch of some bigtime generals and feds. How can they not be responsible?

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