Seeker Blog

This Wall Street Journal piece on last week’s sentencing of Pfc. Lynndie England is an excellent summary of the true history of Abu Ghraib:

It’s worth remembering too that these prosecutions were based on investigations conducted with dispatch that did the Army nothing but credit: A criminal probe was begun within a day of the abuse reports traveling up the chain of command on Jan. 13, 2004; two days after that, Central Command issued a press release about the investigation; on March 20 it was announced that charges had been brought against six of those involved. Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba had completed an investigation whose conclusions have now stood the test of nine courts martial. And this all more than a month before the photos were leaked to the press.

Have detainee abuses occurred elsewhere in the war on terror? Of course. But they were “widespread” only if you define that term geographically instead of by frequency. The adjective “systematic” has been similarly misused. Overall, more than 70,000 detainees have passed through U.S. military custody since late 2001. About 500 criminal investigations have been conducted into allegations of related misconduct, many of which were found to be unsubstantiated. But more than 200 people have already been disciplined for actions ranging from failure to report to prisoner abuse itself.

There have also now been 12 major inquiries–including investigations led by Maj. Gen. George Fay and Vice Adm. Albert Church–into detainee treatment in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. More than 2,800 interviews have been conducted and 16,000 pages of documents produced. And there have been 31 congressional hearings and 45 staff briefings. Given that track record, we can be quite sure that the latest abuse allegations to surface (from an officer of the 82nd Airborne) will get the thorough hearing they deserve.

In short, all the evidence suggests a low rate of detainee mistreatment, one that compares favorably with U.S. civilian prisons, never mind that of other and earlier militaries. “The behavior of our troops is so much better than it was in World War II,” Mr. Schlesinger told me last year. I called him this week to ask what we’ve learned since. “That the press exaggerated,” he replied. The suggestion that Mr. Schlesinger and countless others–from decorated officers to military juries–have lent their good names to some kind of whitewash only reveals the remaining accusers for the crackpots they are.