The Linear Canvas

Regardless of when the president and his cabinet knew about the torture of prisoners going on in Iraqi prisons that was conducted by our military and our mercenaries, there should have been some disclosure immediately. The worst part of any bad news like this is always the failure to disclose this information promptly. Had the secretary of defense admitted that the administration knew something about what was going on in the prisons in January when he said he first heard about it, the political damage could have been lessened. But that would have sounded like they were admitting that they were doing something wrong. We all know that they haven’t done anything wrong at all. The president could not think of anything that they had done wrong at an April 13th news conference, remember?

When the secretary of defense testified in front of congress about the prisoner abuse, he said he was sorry and that reparations would be made to those that had been harmed. My problem is now that I have paid, as a taxpayer, for the abuse to occur, why now do I have to pay reparations? Shouldn’t that money come from the ?contractors?, government agencies, and individuals that were responsible, no matter how high up in the chain of command they find themselves?

This abuse case hopefully puts to rest the notion that all firefighters, police, and the military are somehow automatically heroes just because they serve in those roles. Some are, some aren’t. There are always “employees” that are more moral, more skilled, and more reliable than others, in every occupation. This is also what happens when you send some soldiers into combat whose moral conduct and code of justice has been formed more by the WWF (World Wrestling Foundation or whatever it is called now) than people with a higher moral standard.