I'm sure everyone heard about the abuse of the war prisoners being held at Abu Ghraib by some of the US military. It was all over CNN and the tv, pictures of naked bodies stacked up in a pile and even a woman participating in the abuse.
Well I got this in my e-mail this morning, a news column I get because I like to hear this guys views on things. Anyway, they handed down the sentence of the ringleader and he will get 10 years in prison. This guy wasn't in charge and whoever was in charge there has not been held accountable at all. He says he was following orders. I'm not sure what the actual charges were but no one was killed, no one was injured...lots of prisoners were humiliated though.
The guy makes a good point, that there are pedophiles and others who kill or maim here in North America and not even they get 10 years.
Just wondering if anyone had an opinion about it.
Here's the column:
No doubt, he’s a piece of crap.
But justice is justice and fair is fair. And under our system, the punishment is supposed to fit the crime.
And Charles Graner Jr. didn’t get that.
He didn’t deserve 10 years.
I’m talking about Spec. Charles Graner Jr., the Army Reservist from Uniontown, Pa., who was the ringleader at Abu Ghraib. On Friday he was found guilty of five charges, and on Saturday he was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.
Probably Fort Leavenworth.
He was the guy behind the pictures. The naked pyramid, the prisoner on the bucket with the wires, the smiling chick who was pointing and laughing. That whole disgrace.
It was bad. It was immoral. The president called it “shameful and appalling,” and he was right. Our nation and our military were embarrassed.
But let’s keep things in perspective.
Nobody died. Nobody got hurt. Nobody had their heads cut off.
A Syrian guy was forced to eat pork and drink alcohol, another guy got hit – once – with a metal police baton, and another got punched – once – in the head.
What a Syrian guy was doing in Iraq trying to kill Americans, I don’t know.
But that’s what happened.
There was also sexual humiliation, people being told to simulate things.
But nobody died and nobody got hurt.
And there are pedophiles in America who get less than 10 years in prison. Ditto for drunk drivers who kill people and folks who do other manslaughters and homicides.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending or minimizing what happened. But if you sat in a criminal courtroom in this country you’d go a long time before you saw things like this punished like this.
In terms of what Charles Graner did to those detainees, this sentence is too long. In terms of what he did to America’s good name, it might not be long enough.
But he wasn’t charged with embarrassing the country. He was charged with assault, conspiracy, maltreatment of detainees, committing indecent acts and dereliction of duty.
It’s quite possible that the Abu Ghraib pictures inspired new terrorists to come to Iraq, and new attacks to be launched against Americans. Or it’s possible that those people would have hated us anyway. Maybe the pictures hurt our standing with the Iraqi people, or maybe they were just P.R. for our enemy. Certainly they were a shame on the Army.
Some low-ranking, overage Reservist with a camera had done the war effort incredible harm.
Which makes you wonder how a low-ranking overage Reservist came to be unsupervised with that many prisoners in a setting of that nature.
As a “specialist,” Charles Graner was one step above a private first class. It is a “junior enlisted” rank that is usually reserved for those who do not have significant supervisory responsibilities. Typically, one receives the rank of “specialist” after being in the Army two years.
Though his service ribbons and years-of-service hash marks indicate Craner had been in more than 12 years and had been fairly well decorated, the fact remains that he was very low ranking.
It seems inconceivable that there wasn’t a sergeant or a lieutenant responsible for keeping tabs on Charles Craner and the other reservists with him.
But apparently there wasn’t.
And apparently the jury didn’t believe the defense that he was following orders to soften up the prisoners.
And apparently nobody higher up the food chain is going to be held accountable for such a loss of command and control.
And apparently it’s just like they used to say in basic training: Crap flows downhill.
Charles Craner is responsible for his actions, and he should be punished.
But not 10 years worth.
He was just some Reservist, drilling and doing his duty, and he was called off to war. Into a situation where he may not have been properly trained or supervised. In charge of some terrorists whose buddies were killing Americans day after day. And he got stupid and cruel. And the stuff hit the fan.
This is big, but not big enough to crucify him.
He’s losing his years in service, he’s losing his pay, he’s losing his retirement, he’s losing his good name, he’s losing his job.
And he’s losing 10 years of his life.
Maybe he was offered up as a sacrifice to the offended sensitivities of the world. Maybe he was skewered as a warning to others. Maybe he was thrown under the bus so we could look tough and sensitive, all at the same time.
Yes, he’s trash.
A real piece of crap.
But this is too much.
The punishment doesn’t fit the crime.
- by Bob Lonsberry © 2005
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