The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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Dirty Little Secrets
The Next Big Atrocity Story
by James Dunnigan
May 29, 2005
Discussion Board on this DLS topic
The next big thing in news headlines denouncing the
American military will be horror stories about how Iraqi soldiers and police
treat terrorism suspects. While the Iraqi security forces have been given
training, by Americans, on how to be kind and gentle with the suspects they
pick up, old habits die hard. In the Middle East, actually, in most of the
world, brutal treatment of prisoners is pretty routine. But because American
troops are working with the Iraqis, the Americans will be blamed for any bad
treatment (by Western standards) terrorist suspects get. Journalists love
stories like this, because if the Americans did try and control the way Iraqi
police dealt with suspects, the Americans could be accused of “interfering with
Iraqi sovereignty.” In a practical sense, the American troops could not stop
what the Iraqi cops and troops do to prisoners, because there are not enough
American troops to be there for every arrest, and watch over the prisoners as
long as they are in custody, and at risk.
U.S. troops have been told to
get out of the way when Iraqi cops or soldiers “interrogate” prisoners. American
officers and NCOs serving as advisors in Iraqi police and army units are told
to, well, advise the Iraqis that there are better, and less brutal, ways to get
information from prisoners. This won’t get American troops off the hook with the
media. In fact, there’s no way that the army can win in this game of guilt by
association. So don’t be surprised when the stories begin to appear later this
year.
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