Detainee Abuse Policy?

After weeks of hearing Hitler comparisons and over exaggerated arguments about the treatment, rather it be good or bad, of Guantanamo detainees, we now hear about an official military investigation uncovering some mistreatment of the prisoners.

Now while this report does not give gut wrenching accounts of horrid torture practices like we heard was common place in Saddam’s regime, it does show a sick and twisted side to out interrogation techniques. “Interrogators at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, forced a stubborn detainee to wear women’s underwear on his head, confronted him with snarling military working dogs and attached a leash to his chains…” was how one Washington Post article detailed the accounts. Military investigators called the techniques “creative” and “aggressive” but not crossing the line into torture. These techniques were starting to be used at Gitmo in early 2003.

Now while these acts don’t seem that bad, it does represent a trend in our handling of detainees.

This was one of the many pictures made famous by the Abu Gharib prison scandal, which occurred in April 2004 – a year after the newly published report stated the same abuses happened at Guantanamo.

Now through out the Abu Gharib scandal, one person has been the target of investigation and prosecution. That person is Lyndie England, the lonely little private from Ashland, Kentucky. Our military and the Pentagon have maintained a strong level of deniability in these cases, stating that a few soldiers acted on their own accord in this mistreatment. This is starting to appear to be yet another smoke screen put up by our military leaders.

When you read the accounts of mistreatment at Abu Gharib and Guantanamo, you see similarities that are more then just a chance of luck. They represent what would be more of a practiced policy of interrogation techniques.

Should we be shocked that our Pentagon would alter facts to hide the truth? No! This is not the first time we have seen this. As matter of fact right after the Abu Gharib scandal broke we heard about America’s hero, Pat Tillman, getting killed by enemy fire while storming a hill in Afghanistan. This quickly overshadowed the Abu Gharib story as America was mourning the death of its most well known soldier, the one who left a lucrative NFL contract in order to fight for his country. The only problem is the details of Pat Tillman’s death were grossly manipulated. The only facts that were true was that he was shot and it was in Afghanistan during a gun battle. The disturbing fact that was altered is that he a fell victim to friendly fire. This screamed of scandal and has even provoked the late Tillman’s family to legally go after the government for distorting the horrible facts around their son’s death. It was mostly considered this was done in order to take some attention of Abu Gharib, and now it appears even more so to be true.

This brings me to another question. Should we be concerned that our Pentagon has made practice of distorting facts in order to give them a better appearance? At first thought some might not think so, but look deeper into the question. We are in two wars, one of which the world supported, the other of which a vast majority of the world did not support. In a time when we need to regain support of the world, it is coming out that our Pentagon has taken a policy of lying in order to better their position. This is something that not only destroys the credibility of our country, but also can lead to putting our soldiers in the way of greater harm.

When Newsweek published an article in May of this year stating that interrogators at Guantanamo flushed a Quran, it led to protests and riots in the middle east, in which people lost lives. Not long after the story broke, Newsweek published a retraction to the article in hopes to discourage the protests. Now we are hearing that certain abuses are occurring and our military not only has an evident policy of them but also lies to cover them up. This risks refueling the Quran abuse scandal and sparking more protests in the Middle East.

With these continued scandals coming out of our Pentagon, it is becoming more and more evident that we need to replace our leaders. We need leaders who will run a war based upon fact. Their continued lies are catching up to them and the repercussions they risk are ten fold. Our leaders need to remember this important quote from one of our most famous Presidents, Abraham Lincoln; “No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar.”