Military Times: Fire Rumsfeld and Myers

I doubt that there is any precedent for such a sharply worded editorial from the Military Times as the one quoted below, going so far as to recommend "relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war" if necessary:

Around the halls of the Pentagon, a term of caustic derision has emerged for the enlisted soldiers at the heart of the furor over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal: the six morons who lost the war.

Indeed, the damage done to the U.S. military and the nation as a whole by the horrifying photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees at the notorious prison is incalculable.

But the folks in the Pentagon are talking about the wrong morons.

There is no excuse for the behavior displayed by soldiers in the now-infamous pictures and an even more damning report by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba. Every soldier involved should be ashamed.

But while responsibility begins with the six soldiers facing criminal charges, it extends all the way up the chain of command to the highest reaches of the military hierarchy and its civilian leadership.

The entire affair is a failure of leadership from start to finish. From the moment they are captured, prisoners are hooded, shackled and isolated. The message to the troops: Anything goes.

In addition to the scores of prisoners who were humiliated and demeaned, at least 14 have died in custody in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army has ruled at least two of those homicides. This is not the way a free people keeps its captives or wins the hearts and minds of a suspicious world.

How tragically ironic that the American military, which was welcomed to Baghdad by the euphoric Iraqi people a year ago as a liberating force that ended 30 years of tyranny, would today stand guilty of dehumanizing torture in the same Abu Ghraib prison used by Saddam Hussein’s henchmen.

One can only wonder why the prison wasn’t razed in the wake of the invasion as a symbolic stake through the heart of the Baathist regime. . . .

To date, the Army has moved to court-martial the six soldiers suspected of abusing Iraqi detainees and has reprimanded six others.

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who commanded the MP brigade that ran Abu Ghraib, has received a letter of admonishment and also faces possible disciplinary action.

That’s good, but not good enough.This was not just a failure of leadership at the local command level. This was a failure that ran straight to the top. Accountability here is essential —- even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war. ("A Failure of Leadership at the Highest Levels," May 17)

On the home page of the Army Times is an online poll. This week's poll's question: "Do you think Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Richard Myers should keep their jobs, in light of allegations of prisoner abuse at Al Ghraib Prison in Iraq?" The polling results, as of May 15, 2004, 6:22 PM EST:

Rumsfeld should go, Myers should stay	8.70 % (531)
Myers should go, Rumsfeld should stay	2.93 % (179)
Both should go	45.61 % (2,782)
Both should stay	40.33 % (2,460)
Don’t know	2.43 % (148)
Total votes: 6100