Hope yet for America

THE EDITOR: I am writing this letter as a former enlisted soldier, military policeman and retiree in the US Army. I am very concerned about what seems to me to be an attempt by the Pentagon and others in the US military chain of command to use the enlisted soldiers involved in the brutality of the Iraqi detainees as scapegoats for the atrocities at the prisons in Iraq managed by the US military. Knowing how the US military operates, it is next to impossible for me to see how those in command (from the generals, colonels, majors, captains, lieutenants, sergeants, etc) and others in charge of those prisons (whether they were military police guarding them or military intelligence interrogators) to not have known that something illegal, immoral and against the standards of the Geneva Convention, was taking place.

When you add to it, the fact that these incidences of abuses happened over an extensive period of time (more than a year), with the International Red Cross and others (to include Ambassador Paul Bremer) bringing this issue to the attention of those running the Pentagon and the war effort. I do not believe that these enlisted soldiers of such low ranks could have done all that these pictures show them doing, without someone in authority not knowing what was happening and apparently doing nothing to stop what they knew, or should have known, was clearly against all international and US miliary regulations. It took the actions of one courageous soldier to bring the pictures forward to the news media for the media, the Pentagon and the US President to sit up and take notice. By this time, the damage to the USA’s credibility was already done and led to the death of Nick Berg in retaliation for the brutality meted out to these Iraqi detainees/prisoners.

To put all of this in context, the people of Iraq and the Middle East are used to brutal and tyrannical leaders who have done horrific acts to and against their own people. So they are used to that sort of treatment. But the USA has held up itself to be different and the gatekeeper of democracy and human decency. So to see acts as the ones portrayed on TV and in the press, and beamed around the world, it gives people ammunition in their beliefs that the US is no different than the dictator they deposed. It is like trading in one tyrant for some more. It also helps ferment the belief in the Arab world that the USA is only in Iraq for the oil and not as the caring nation that it has professed itself to be. The acts of a few soldiers and their leaders (either knowingly or through complacency), will probably damage US credibility for many years to come.

So, I hope that all the investigations that are currently underway, will not stop at the 6-12 enlisted soldiers who claim as their defense, only “to be following orders.” If that is the case, then whose orders were they following? They should be naming the people in their chain of command who were responsible for what the world is now seeing on their TVs. I hope that the others who are responsible for “this PR mess” will also be brought to justice. I think this is possible, and with adequate public pressure, it will happen. The USA has to much at stake here not to show the world that, “yes, we have done wrong, but here is how we police ourselves.” This is more than I can say for the followers of Saddam who killed hundreds of thousands of people over the years of his reign and who will probably never be punished for their brutal acts against the Iraqi people. So, there is yet hope for America.

KELVIN  C  JAMES,  Sr
Port-of-Spain