The Staton Jones Report

Despite what you've read in the "mainstream press" an Army report due out soon will implicate military leadership right up the chain for the prisoner torture scandal at Abu Ghraib.

An Army investigation into the role of military intelligence personnel in the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison reports that the scandal was not just caused by a small circle of rogue military police soldiers but resulted from failures of leadership rising to the highest levels of the U.S. command in Iraq, senior defense officials said.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the report has not yet been completed, said the 9,000-page document says that a combination of leadership failings, confounding policies, lack of discipline and absolute confusion at the prison led to the abuse. It widens the scope of culpability from seven MPs who have been charged with abuse to include nearly 20 low-ranking soldiers who could face criminal prosecution in military courts. No Army officers, however, are expected to face criminal charges.

Officials also said that the report implicates five civilian contractors in the abuse, and that Army officials plan to recommend that their cases be sent to the Justice Department for possible prosecution in civilian courts.

Of course, no one in charge will actually be punished for their role in all this, so they'll never be tried or punished for it. Instead, we'll just have to pay the price in endless wars in the Middle East as our infintessimal credibility wafts away in the breeze.