Shared blame for prison abuses

The abuse, humiliation and "sadistic" torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison was inflicted at the hands of a few. Some of the abuse was administered by rogue guards who were not attached to intelligence units. Some service members who abused prisoners were unclear what techniques they could legally use on prisoners and went too far in their interrogations.

Further up the chain of command were leaders who knew of the abuses and failed to report them. Still other leaders failed to provide supervision and support to troops who were young and inexperienced in running a detention center.

Two in-depth investigative reports on the prison scandal suggest many people were culpable for the prison abuses, whether through gross violations of Army ethics and standards of common decency or their inaction upon learning about the sadistic acts and humiliations of Iraqi prisoners. The newly released reports appear to allay suspicions that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered or encouraged use of abusive tactics against the Iraqi detainees.

However, the reports identify other senior military officers for leadership failures that may have enabled the abuses. These officers, as well as the young soldiers who appeared in the now-famous photographs that depicted abuse, must be held accountable for their respective roles in the scandal.

Both reports recount incidents of deplorable abuse. Naked prisoners were exposed to extreme cold. Some prison guards used guard dogs to frighten two Iraqi adolescents into involuntarily fouling themselves.

The reports say the Army was ill-prepared for the events after the fall of Baghdad. The prison was understaffed, as were interrogation units. Many soldiers were not trained to run a detention facility, and they were ill-equipped to handle insurgent attacks on the facility.

In other words, soldiers who lacked discipline and training could easily run afoul of military procedures and expectations. When abuse occurred, some military leaders turned a blind eye to it or were fully aware of it but did not report it to superiors.