Taking Orders

CNN reports on Lynndie England, now under indictment based on the Abu Ghraib photographs. England was interviewed by KCNC televison in Denver (several Denver based lawyers have agreed to take her case).

Referring to the photograph of her smiling, England said, "I was told to stand here, point thumbs up, look at the camera and take the picture."

Maass asked England who told her to do that. England replied, "Persons in my chain of command."

When asked by Maass what she was thinking at that time, England said, "I was thinking it was kind of weird."

England said even worse things were captured in photographs taken at the prison. She declined to comment what might be depicted in those images.

If what England says is true, then it contradicts the public statements of Rumsfeld, Taguba, and others, who argue that this was a case of a few rogue elements getting out of hand. At the same time, it doesn't entirely absolve England: according to something I saw last night on PBS, the Army supposedly trains soldiers to distinguish between legal and illegal orders:

LT. COL. DAVE GROSSMAN (Ret.): Ever since Mylai, every single soldier is required by law to be repeatedly trained on a yearly basis about what is an illegal act, what is an illegal action and not just how to identify illegal actions but how to go about reporting them and how to disobey orders.

Of course, saying that this is done doesn't mean much--a friend of mine who is in the reserves told me how the "don't ask, don't tell" policy towards gays was handled in his unit--in a word, disgustingly. But the fact is that England and others should have known it was wrong. England herself says she thought it was "kind of weird."

However, not disobeying illegal orders implies that illegal orders were given. The question is, by whom? Blaming low level staff like England will simply be another case of denying the real problem: our Iraq policy, based on false information, racism, and an overall lack of understanding of the region, is a catastrophe.

How many more--on ALL sides--must die before this relatively simple concept is understood, and acted upon?