Obviously everyone from General John Abezaid, and probably from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who actually visited the prison), on down knew what was going on, not only in Abu Ghraib, but in the other less publicly known prison camps where captured Iraqi insurgents are taken to be softened up for information. There have been enough reports leaking out about torture not only in Iraq but also in Afghanistan and in Guantanamo, for us to know that torture is not an aberration but rather is the policy.
If anything, what sets America apart from some of its client states and from Saddam Hussein's regime is not torture itself, which the CIA has long endorsed and practiced and taught to client states' police, and which U.S. soldiers do at least as capably as the next centurion. It's that some American soldiers actually believe strongly enough in the notional values of the American Constitution they ostensibly are fighting to protect to actually report such evil, even at the risk of personal loss or punishment. What sets America apart is that its mainstream media, as compromised and timid as they have become, will still occasionally, as CBS's "60 Minutes" has done here, blow the whistle on such criminality and barbarism.
Still, if he were genuinely distressed at the images broadcast by CBS over his Pentagon's objections, he would be demanding the stripes and stars of every ranking officer in the chain of command who either knew what was going on, or should have known and allowed it to happen on their watch.
Don't hold your breath.
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