War Crimes:
The Uneasy Matter of Accountability

Photo: bloomsberries
Beginning from the standpoint of the retired general who oversaw the U.S. Army’s investigation into the Abu Ghraib debacle, historian Jeremy Brecher and legal analyst Brendan Smith have offered The Nation an outline of the various accountability options that are available and where things stand today.
“There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”
– Retired Major General Antonio Tagubas, U.S. Army
They conclude with a rather compelling nine-point case for holding U.S. war crimes violators accountable for the irreparable damage they have caused to our national security and other interests. (My humble opinion: If one more member of our dutiful military is scapegoated for these atrocities when they were merely following orders, while the cowardly highest-level civilians who ordered these un-American deeds walk gloriously off into the sunset, this entire nation needs to rise up in revolt.)
However one may feel about exactly how to reach closure on this most awkward of topics, Brecher’s and Smith’s points generally are quite well taken and certainly provide every American with food for thought…however difficult it may be to digest.


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It is a pity that drastic measures (read torture) have had to be employed to gain information. Torture, as is widely known, very rarely if at all gleans useful or reliable information. I would have thought such great men as those in the halls of power would know this.
Responsibility lies with those who issue the order, as well as with those that wield the sword.
Another thing, interestingly, why didn’t these retired generals say something and stop these tortures?