To This We've Come

The current issue of The New Yorker (June 25, 2007) has an article penned by Seymour M. Hersh focusing on what happened to the general, Antonio M. Taguba, who was given the task in early 2004, of investigating what happened at Abu Ghraib prison.

Excerpts:

In January, 2006, Taguba received a telephone call from General Richard
Cody, the Army's Vice-Chief of Staff. "This is your Vice," he told Taguba "I need you to retire by January, 2007."

"...the president had to be aware of this (torture at Abu Ghraib." (Taguba)

"I know that my peers in the Army will be mad at me for speaking out, but
the fact is we violated the laws of land warfare in Abu Ghraib. We violated the
tenets of the Geneva Convention. We violated our own principles and we violated
the core of our military values. The stress of combat is not an excuse, and I
believe, even today, that those civilian and military leaders responsible should be held accountable." (Taguba)

We sank, at Abu Ghraib, to the level of that which we are fighting, and the responsibility for the poisoning of the American soul goes straight to the top at the Pentagon and the White House. This is what George Bush has wrought. This will be his legacy.

Photo: There are many beautiful houses in the Fire Island Pines. This house we affectioately refer to as "The Blue Dot House." We've watched over the years as the owners changed the appearance of this beautiful house.

Jim