Mishandling in Iraq

Sy Hersh has another fine piece in this week's New Yorker - a profile of the Army general who conducted the initial Abu Ghraib investigation. For his pains, Major General Antonio M. Taguba has been put out to pasture; he was forced to retire in January of this year after 34 years in the Army.

The final paragraph is a quote from Taguba, an appalling indictment of the state of affairs, all the more resonant for its source:

“From the moment a soldier enlists, we inculcate loyalty, duty, honor, integrity, and selfless service,” Taguba said. “And yet when we get to the senior-officer level we forget those values. I know that my peers in the Army will be mad at me for speaking out, but the fact is that we violated the laws of land warfare in Abu Ghraib. We violated the tenets of the Geneva Convention. We violated our own principles and we violated the core of our military values. The stress of combat is not an excuse, and I believe, even today, that those civilian and military leaders responsible should be held accountable.”

I don't know how long that New Yorker link will last, but the whole piece is worth reading.