Standard Operating Procedure

Saying something is SOP(standard operating procedure) in the military is standard fare. It is like saying, "How do you do something?" Oh, just follow the SOP.

In the civilian world it might be called a vision statement, protocol, whatever; but, in the military it tells you the rules and exactly how to do something, step by step. It spells it out, no questions asked.

Well guess what? SOP was not followed at the Abu Ghraib prison if the infamous photos show anything. In some ways, it didn’t tell us what we had not already heard.

What it really boils down to is a bunch of unsophisticated emotionally and intellectually challenged kids left to their own devices- ignorant youngsters who get into a kind of cult existence, led by a 37 year old ne'er-do-well named Charles Graner, who becomes their guru. The military, however, is where the real fault lies; the overall military is complicit.

All of us who have any connection to the military should be ashamed. The chain of command totally broke down leaving these kids on their own. And, to make it worse, they were National Guard troops, some of the first to arrive in the country, with almost no training. These guys were thrown into this crazy situation and it's the toll of war in more ways than one. From their perspective, they simply did what they were told to do.

My suspicion is that we have so few in Congress and other places who have had very little experience with the military; they did not even know the right questions to ask. Where was the chain of command? The Sergeant Major, The First Sergeant, Platoon Sergeant?

No unit that I've ever been in would have let this happen. The First Sergeant and the chain of command would have been all over it. This was a sad aberration, but one where only a few went to jail was equally an aberration. There are so many at fault who got away with not even a slap on the hand: Generals, commanders, non-commissioned officers, civilians-the list is endless.

Seeing the documentary, Standard Operating Procedure, makes an ex-Army guy ashamed. This is a disturbing movie that few will see. The moviemaker does those Hollywood sorts of things that make the picture entertaining in a weird sense: the music, the re-enactments,etc.

What is amazing are the interviewees. Not one, in the whole group including Lynndie England, seemed to honestly get it, their response was essentially "Not my fault, doing what I was told." Almost all didn't seem to get any connection between right and wrong, humiliation, or basic decency-maybe one youngster, who was a generator mechanic, kind of got caught up in it. He felt bad that he had soiled his family's reputation.

Up the chain of command, there is not a single person who says, "I should have been there." The most obvious one was the one Brigade commander, Janis Karpinski(now colonel). It was her job; and, in an interview, if accurate, merely plays the "left out of the loop" card.

And, what about General Sanchez? I always liked him; but, ultimately, knowing or not, it was his job. In his book, just out, Wiser In Battle, he absolves himself from blame. Someone else's fault. To me, this incident is the story of how everything associated with our debacle in Iraq has been mismanaged in every way.
Sad, sad, sad.