Guest Post by Morbo
If you feel like banging your head against the wall this weekend, I recommend you read Seymour M. Hersh’s article in “The New Yorker” about retired Army Major General Antonio M. Taguba.
Taguba was asked to lead the Army’s investigation into the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. He made the foolish mistake of assuming that his superiors wanted a real report instead of whitewash and is now paying the price for that.
Taguba’s report noted that “Numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees…systemic and illegal abuse.” It also rejected Bush administration claims that the abuse was the work of a few low-level soldiers acting on their own.
Hersh’s piece is long, and I won’t try to summarize the whole thing here. Suffice it to say, Taguba’s findings were not welcome, and he slams former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for refusing to take the matter seriously and possible lying to Congress. It’s yet another reminder that an organized criminal gang has been running the country for the past seven years.
This story has a predictable end: Taguba found himself shunned by longtime friends in the military and was forced out.
As Hersh reports:
In January of 2006, Taguba received a telephone call from General Richard Cody, the Army’s Vice-Chief of Staff. “This is your Vice,” he told Taguba. “I need you to retire by January of 2007.” No pleasantries were exchanged, although the two generals had known each other for years, and, Taguba said, “He offered no reason.”
Taguba told Hersh, “They always shoot the messenger. To be accused of being overzealous and disloyal — that cuts deep into me. I was being ostracized for doing what I was asked to do.”
They always shoot the messenger indeed. If there’s one thing the Bush administration has down pat, it’s that.
But in this case, they may have acted too soon. Taguba was reluctant to speak out about his experiences, but Hersh persuaded him to talk. This will probably not be the last story you will read about Taguba. The more you read, the more you understand what it takes to be a real American hero.