Critics: Bush set tone for abuse in Iraq

Critics: Bush set tone for abuse in Iraq

By James Rosen -- Bee Washington Bureau
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, May 16, 2004

WASHINGTON - Both inside and outside the military, there is widespread agreement that the soldiers who abused Abu Ghraib prisoners acted illegally and deserve punishment.

snip...
"If you're in the Army, you know what illegal orders are," said Timothy Lomperis, a St. Louis University political science professor who served as a military intelligence officer in Vietnam. "There's lots of training about illegal orders and the Geneva Conventions. I'm sorry, but those MP units (at Abu Ghraib) know the rules. Just because they're reservists doesn't excuse them."

snip..
With "bring it on" taunts at enemy "thugs and assassins," their language and interpretation of legal protections for prisoners of war, in some experts' view, helped to create a permissive atmosphere that could foster the kind of abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib.

"I think the whole attitude toward prisoners created by the administration as a whole does not discourage this sort of behavior," said retired Army Gen. William Odom, a former National Security Agency director who is a national security analyst with Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.

more... http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/9316719p-10241497c.html