The Facts on Abu Ghraib

Thursday, May 20, 2004

By Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu

FrontPageMagazine.com

Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu has been an Army Green Beret lieutenant colonel, as well as a writer, popular speaker, business executive and farmer. His most recent book is Separated at Birth, about North and South Korea.

If we are to draw a practical lesson from Vietnam - a far more useful exercise than trying to morph Iraq prisoner abuse into the mass murder of My Lai - it ought to be accountability. In contrast to Vietnam, the military in Iraq – and not civilian media – uncovered the abuse and launched investigations. The chain of command was informed. Once the incident splashed into the public eye, those in charge acknowledged the event, expressed their disgust and pledged to get to the bottom of it. All good things and far different than the knee-jerk coverup the institution tried to perpetrate 35 years ago.

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“How could they have been so stupid?” If that question didn’t top the most-asked list it must have been a contender. Photos of American GIs abusing Iraqi prisoners have now been plastered just about everywhere in the world. Talk about stupid! These idiots took snapshots of themselves! It’s as if someone asked, “What can we do to make this war even more difficult than it is now?”

It is said that one bad cop makes all cops bad. (At least, it seems to in the media or in public perception.) It certainly serves the purpose of someone predisposed to criticize or disapprove. High profile cases of abuse in New York City or Los Angeles police forces have besmirched the reputations of all honest policemen. Similarly, the soldiers involved with this abuse incident have not only sullied their profession, their service, their comrades and their country, but the entire Western world and all it stands for. Under the circumstances it pains me to refer to them as soldiers, but until they are found guilty by court-martial they are entitled to the name.

But it is critical to acknowledge that as ugly as this incident may turn out to be it is strictly that: an aberration, an anomaly in the way American soldiers conduct themselves. Regrettably it does happen. History is rife with examples. Within a month after parachuting into Normandy the 101st Airborne Division, perhaps the best unit in the war at the time, tried and convicted several soldiers of rape, robbery and assault. Cases of German POWs being summarily executed were so common as to be largely unreported. Incidents of civilian deaths associated with combat were treated as incidental and the cost war. Systematic looting was ubiquitous.

What is truly remarkable is that nothing like this has occurred in Iraq. Historically this may be the cleanest military campaign ever waged by an army unparalleled in its restrain and honesty. Consequently the disclosure of the prisoner abuse becomes even more of a case for indignation.

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Dan