Justin, General Taguba's report described the problem as "systemic", which clearly means that it's the organization that's sick, not just a few isolated individuals. When an organization is sick, it is absolutely the responsibility of its leadership.

Robert,

if you want to accuse leadership with any credibility you are going to have to learn about how it is structured and how responsibility is handled. If there was systemsic abuse/torture/rape, find how how far it goes. Is it all at cell block A? Ok, then its the commander for Cell block A that should be punished. Is it the whole prison? OK, punish the prison Commander. Is it all the prisons in the country? OK, then its the commander immediately in charge of all the prisons in the country, but keep in mind, you actually have to prove this stuff. We have proof that there were problems at Abu Garaib so far. . . we don;t know the rest yet, but before calling for the resignation of the Secretary of Defense, you must evidence that Rumsfeld himself was did soemthing, not just conjecture of a policy that you think exsissts based on your opinion of how things really are. A policy that you can't provide a document for, that you don't know where it was introduced and don't even know what it says. If you want Policy, Dan has posted it. The FMs are policy and breaking those can (and should in this case most of all!!) result in criminal charges. Thats the policy thats in place, that policy was broken, those who broke it should have the appropriate UCMJ articles dealt to them.

Specifically, since it took office the Bush Administration has expressed nothing but contempt for international law and institutions. It vehemently opposes the International Criminal Court,

Opinion. . .

The Bush Administration has nothing but disdain for world opinion;

Opinion. . .

The attitudes expressed by the leadership become the working philosophy of the troops.

More Of Roberts Opinion. . .

During the Afghanistan war the Bush Administration claimed that the Geneva Convention didn't apply to POWs, both combatant and noncombatant, and that saying they did was merely quibbling over technicalities. They've made similar claims about the Afghanistan prisoners being held at Guantonamo Bay. Those policy pronouncements were translated into action at Abu Ghraib prison.

no, you want them to be POWs, eventhough they are unlawful combatants, clearly defined by the geneva convention. . . so this is just plain wrong.

The Bush Administration willfully disregarded projections of troop and material resources required in Iraq that we now know to have been correct.

More Opinion. . .

. . . they've put our troops in an increasingly untenable and dangerous situation through mismanagement and appalling ineptitude.

You'v enever planned for a war, you've never managed a country, you've never mannaged an army, you know absolutely none of the small details that go into planning and mannaging this and now you are just echoing the spineless calls from leftist parrots, who also, have no experience with the subject and know absolutely no details what-so-ever. STILL MORE OPINION!

You don't have a graph or anything? Pictures from these other places? Testimonies under oath? anything other than the left wing organizations that are biased against every thing the US does?

Is it any wonder that the pressures created by such a bad situation--the resultant system--warps and cracks a few people and produces the outrages at Abu Ghraib prison? What happened there isn't about shortcomings in our troops, it's about where their leaders have taken them.

It is absolutely correct, morally and factually, to hold Bush and his senior military lieutenant responsible for this situation. It's wrong to try and throw a few soldiers to the wolves to protect Bush's political prospects.

unbelievable. The same tired argument that 'its not little johneys fault for beating up his classmates, he just comes from an disturbed household'.
Lets just let them all go free. . . Right now Robert, there is a serious problem in the millitary. Its not what you think. Its the failure to adequately punish those who commit crime . Most are just given a discharge when they should face jail time. This is what happened to most officers who are responsible, they were given letters of reprimand, or discharged. . . . they should have gone to jail. While you are going off on a tangent blaming Rumsfeld for this, echelons away form the the soldier raping a female detainee, the real problems are going to continue.

hmm. . . a year ago in my unit, a male soldier raped a newly arrived female. His punishment was just a discharge. Unbeleivable. The only time he spent in jail was the time they held him for trial. Obvioulsy you will think this Rumsfelds fault too? Rape amoung enlisted ranks? Drunk driving on post? obviously this is a systemic problem! Therefor it Rumsfelds fault! The buck stops with him!

I'm sorry I can't take you seriously when you blame Rumsfeld for these soldiers actions.

-Justin Kelly