5/9/2004

IT'S NOT MY FAULT

I happened to be driving to an appointment, had the radio on, and listened to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsford hearing before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee. His prepared speech was well-written and presented. The questions threw him off-guard, particularly from Arizona Senator John McCain, once a presidential candidate himself.

McCain is also a former prisoner of war, so he went right to the point. “ Who was in charge of the interrogation?“ At first, Rumsford did not know, and asked General Richard Myers, who had forgot the chart of the chain of command (or perhaps on purpose he forgot it?) Rumsford then hemmed, he hawed; he stated some rout facts from his prepared speech.

Evidently there were several in charge, including “private contractors,” and maybe too many in charge, and then there is the International Red Cross that had informed the army chain of command what they saw a year ago, and nothing happened until pictures in Europe of what was going on came to the American media. On “Meet the Press” this morning the chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee Senator John Warner of Virginia said they still did not know who was in charge of the interrogations. It was also revealed the police and guards in duty received no training about the Geneva convention of treatment of prisoners.

It was January 13th that a member of the 800 th Military Police Brigade told superiors about prisoner abuses at the Abu Ghurayb prison and turned over photographs. It seems guards were also sending by e-mail photographs home and video's, too! They were proud of their acts! They were ordered and encouraged to “bread down” prisoners and threat them in this manner.

There also was rape and murder. The system failed. Their family up-bringing
failed.

Rumsford said he would not resign, basically saying he was not to blame.

It's not my fault?

    If a woman burns her thighs on the hot coffee she was holding in her lap while driving, she blames the restaurant.

    If your teen-age son kills himself, you blame the rock 'n' roll musician he liked.

    If your daughter gets pregnant by the football captain you blame the school for poor sex education.

    If your neighbor crashes into a tree while driving home drunk, you blame the bartender.

    If your grandchildren are brats without manners, you blame television.

    If you smoke three packs a day for 40 years and die of lung cancer your family blames the tobacco company.

    If you blame your wife for not wanting romance, but you have done nothing to promote it, and call her "cold."

"God bless America, land of the free, home of the blame."

What's going on here? No one is willing to step up to the plate? It's always someone else? It's not me? Rumsford is the Secretary of Defense. Where does the buck stop?

Let's accept responsibility for our own actions and change this attitude of non responsibility. Place blame properly. It is obvious the Secretary of Defense has lost control. We all need to face reality rather than trying to “pass the buck.”

We all need to accept responsibility and not be silent about it.