Jun 18, 2007

Taguba exposes the bullshit

Retired Army Major General Antonio Taguba speaks out to The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh about Abu Graib. I found this quote to be one of the most interesting:
"From the moment a soldier enlists, we inculcate loyalty, duty, honor, integrity, and selfless service,” Taguba said. “And yet when we get to the senior-officer level we forget those values. I know that my peers in the Army will be mad at me for speaking out, but the fact is that we violated the laws of land warfare in Abu Ghraib. We violated the tenets of the Geneva Convention. We violated our own principles and we violated the core of our military values. The stress of combat is not an excuse, and I believe, even today, that those civilian and military leaders responsible should be held accountable."
Taguba is a man of the greatest integrity. It's such a damn shame he had to work for this administration, where his talents were silenced and wasted. Kudos to him for continuing to speak out.

2 comments:

pins&needles said...

This gives me some beam of hope in a world of distrust.

Stephen Green said...

You fight your enemies where you find them. In Taguba's case these enemies turned out to be in the White House and the military command structure. The shame is that he lacked more allies.