Blame the Little Guy

Somehow they always blame the little guy. The Generals, the Defense Secretaries, the higher-ups see no evil and do no evil. It’s the few bad apples at the bottom that cause all the problems. At least that is what they keep telling us.The latest example is a new report by the British military that no commander was responsible for the crimes of British troops; it was just the fault of the common foot soldier. The report follows the investigation of abuses that took place during the British occupation of Basra including six deaths of detainees.

In one case Baha Mousa, a hotel receptionist, died of asphyxiation 36 hours after being detained by British soldiers. According to the New York Times, six of the seven British soldiers charged in Mr. Mousa’s death were found innocent and one received a sentence of a year in prison. The report concluded that the problem was entirely that of a individual soldiers.

But the New York Times also quotes critics of the military report, for instance a human rights lawyer who aptly says,”It was standard operating procedure to hood, stress and deprive detainees of sleep food and water. There is the clearest evidence from the court martial into the death of Bah Mousa, and other emerging evidence, that systematic abuse by U.K. soldiers in Iraq was rife.” Systematic behavior is, of course, not the problem of a few bad apples but the responsibility of command.

The report found that the lack of training of soldiers in dealing with detainees was the primary reason for the abuses. In other words, in finding that no commanders were responsible for the abuse, the report essentially argues that commanders have no responsibility to train the soldiers under their command; equally, if they look the other way as harsh techniques are used – so be it.

The same attitude has been true in the United States military. Never mind that conflicting memos made it impossible to discern what policy actually was operative, so that soldiers in the field had no guidance as to how to behave. Never mind that officers consistently claim that they never saw what was happening under their command. Never mind that the soldiers themselves report that they were told to “soften up” the prisoners and received commendations for their activities. The abuses at Abu Graib, as well as those that took place in Guantanamo and in Afghanistan are the responsibility of a few common foot soldiers. No one else is responsible.

Famously, President Truman had a sign on his desk, “The buck stops here.” In the military, the rule is the opposite: victory is the result of astute commanders, their wise planning, but if something goes wrong it is the responsibility of the foot soldiers.