Defense secretary shows more concern over photos

Frontiersman editorial board

During testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee Friday, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld apologized for the shocking and heinous behavior of U.S. soldiers and contractors at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.

There is so much that should disturb Americans in this situation. Some of the themes that developed during the Senate inquiry should certainly number among our deepest concerns. Not the least of those is the sense Rumsfeld gave that he is more concerned that photographs of the torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners of war were released to the media than he is about the abuses themselves.

"If there's a failure, it's me. It's my failure for not understanding and knowing that there were hundreds … of [these photographs] that could eventually end up in the public and do the damage they've done," Rumsfeld said during testimony.

That comment calls into question the secretary's intentions from the start. He was apparently informed that there was a serious situation at the prison on Jan. 6. He was aware that photographs existed some time after that, and he knew that those photographs were being used as evidence in a criminal investigation. Still, Rumsfeld testified he didn't see the photos until they showed up on television Thursday night -- even though he knew the photos had been released, and that they would air.

He also didn't inform anyone in Congress, or apparently even the president, that the photographs existed, had been leaked and were about to be aired.

"I failed to recognize how important it was to elevate a matter of such gravity to the highest levels, including the president and the members of Congress," Rumsfeld said.

How? How does the secretary of defense fail to recognize the levity of such a situation? The United States has already drawn international heat for treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, and for detaining international prisoners without formal charges or representation. Now a stunned world has learned that Americans have tortured and mistreated prisoners of war, in what seems to be complete disregard for the Geneva Convention.

A second common thread of the testimony, both from Rumsfeld and from members of the committee, was the sense that the behavior of the soldiers at Abu Ghraib is "un-American." Rumsfeld and several of the senators stated strongly that such treatment of prisoners flies in the face of American values, and that America can't be judged by the behavior of a few soldiers lacking in moral fiber.

What must be painfully reckoned with is the fact that those soldiers are Americans, serving under the command of other Americans. Until the war in Iraq, pre-emptive war was not an American value, either. Perhaps it's time to revisit American values and decide what we truly want to stand for, and what we're willing to sacrifice and endure to maintain those values. We may not want to admit that Americans, working in an American system, can perform inhuman acts, but this incident casts our value system in a jaundiced light, and the truth will not dissipate if we simply avert our eyes.

Lastly, we should remember that thousands of U.S. service men and women are serving honorably and remain in harm's way. Those troops who are acting responsibly still deserve our support. Part of that support should be our insistence upon a full accounting of this incident, and a complete effort to ensure nothing like this ever happens again.