Bill SprichtJust another WordPress weblog

I know it is terribly unfashionable in this post-historical age to think there is anything special or sacred about military tradition and values. Things like discipline, for example. Yet in this Washington Post exclusive story about the possibility that General Sanchez was present at Abu Ghraib when torture was inflicted during interrogations, we have a Brigadier General (Karpinski) giving interviews and posing suggestive questions:

• In an interview yesterday, Karpinski said the number of visits by a commanding general struck her as “unusual,” especially because Sanchez had not visited several of the 15 other U.S. detention facilities in Iraq.
• Karpinski has said that she is being used as a scapegoat for the command failures at Abu Ghraib.
• The general, a reservist from South Carolina, said she was not present during Sanchez’s visits because her brigade had surrendered authority over that part of the prison to intelligence officers. She said she was alerted as a courtesy while the three-star general was planning to travel to the prison. Karpinski added that Sanchez might have visited without her knowledge after the intelligence officers were given formal authority over the entire prison on Nov. 19.

“He has divisions all over Iraq, and he has time to visit Abu Ghraib three times in a month?” Karpinski asked yesterday. “Why was he going out there so often? Did he know that something was going on?”

Am I the only one shocked to read that she is saying these things “in an interview”? Even if she is 100% correct, I am shocked. Is she still part of the Reserve or has she officially resigned? Even if she has resigned, does she not realize she is speculating about the commanding officer in a war and concerning an issue that she knows full well will be used by hostile media around the world in order to intensify hatred towards the United States?

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