No charges, no accountability, regarding recorded prisoner abuses, with the whimsical title. Did these troops decide that this was Spring Break? They are from West Palm Beach, after all. Charges included rape. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7092918 quotes: More cases Other investigations included in the Army documents involve other units in Iraq. They include: —An Iraqi said he was beaten against a Bradley infantry carrier by two soldiers after being detained. Medics said he had a seizure. The case was closed for insufficient evidence. —An investigation into allegations of rape and other abuses in Iraq by soldiers in the 3rd Infantry Division, which were recounted in a Playboy article. The investigation could not validate the allegations in the article. —A former soldier was charged with making a false official statement after alleging some of his comrades stole from Iraqis at vehicle checkpoints in Iraq. —A civilian with the organization searching for weapons of mass destruction alleged a U.S. military prison guard at Baghdad International Airport forced a detainee to drink his own urine. The investigation could not prove this happened.
From the UN rape (not sex) scandal thread: I agree with ITN. However, I am not practiced in the nuances of situational ethics. Kori should step down. Rumsfeld should, too, for the same reason.
Some interesting lines in the report is the statement, and fact that only, "In some small number of cases, low-ranking soldiers have been punished", but not high ranking officials. C'est La Vie. You know what I really don't understand is why all of these soldiers and co. film or record committing these acts? Do they get paid to do such stuff? Is it for "posterity"? Or are people really that stupid. Don't get me wrong, this is horrible, but a murderer doesn't leave photos of himself in the act, for people to find.
No situational ethics employed Roel, nuanced or otherwise. The sitautions are far different. Rumsfeld/DoD are actively prosecuting DoD members accused of improper behavior if and when it occurs, whereas U.N. is doing nothing. Whereas Rumsfeld has repeatedly said proper behavior is essential, Annan has said nothing. Widespread U.N. misconduct is not comparable to the few instances of DoD misconduct. Only a flaming liberal leftist would see comparisons between the two.
They record it because they are proud of it. They find it entertaining. The MSNBC report did not include that one soldier allegedly took a corpse and waved its hand at the camera. That is really sick. The CO's are declaring this "inappropriate," but we "can't be Monday morning quarterbacks" because we (as observers) don't understand the intensity of the soldiers' situation. This is bullsh!t. If soldier #1 has time to grab a corpse, and soldier #2 has time to grab a camera, and the two have time to say, "hey, let's do some gags for the 'Ramadi Madness' video!" The situation could not have been that intense. That sort of argument might hold water about as a bucket without its bottom, if you remember the case of the US soldier shooting the prone Iraqi in a Mosque a few months ago. Or even the amped-up check-point guard who couldn't tell an Italian from an Iraqi last week. But these guys had serious breathing room, and knew exactly what they were doing.
Situational ethics leads to situational reality. Bushies are definitely reality challenged. Could you at least agree that the behavior of US soldiers, as identified above, is disgusting? So far, all the evidence points to widespread US misconduct in Iraq, and US soldiers both proud of it and saying they were following orders. Rumsfeld denies any accountability (or if you believe that he really tried to resign, W himself assured there would be no accountability.) In my mind, Kofi fails the competence and the ethics sniff test. So does Rumsfeld (even more so.)