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The Chain of Command and The Investigations
July 8, 2006
Kelly Thomas
(AP Photo/Ali al-Mahmouri) |
I don't know of anything that has disturbed me more than the recent allegations of rape and murder against our troops in Iraq. If what alleged happened, where was the chain of command?
The military is built around the chain of command. What that means is that every soldier has someone in charge of him/her.
Those three to five soldiers sitting out on a "checkpoint" outside the village of Mahmoudiya in Iraq had a fire team leader who was the highest ranking person over their five man team. The fire team leader had a squad leader who had a platoon sergeant who had a platoon leader (an officer) who had a company commander. These are the very basics of the chain of command.
No soldier operates in isolation. And, when we hear of incidents like this or Abu Ghraib , the first question to be asked is: WHERE WAS THE CHAIN OF COMMAND?
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