“Command Errors Aided Iraq Abuse, Army Has Found: Broader Pattern Is Cited: Military Intelligence Staff and Civilian Employees Faulted in a Report,” by James Risen, New York Times, 3 May, p. A1.
This is what happens when you force personnel into roles for which they have not received enough training. The “broader pattern” that needs to be described here is not the abuse (symptom), but the cause (we didn’t go into Iraq with enough sense of the challenges of waging the peace that followed the war). That prison was filled with personnel working above their training level. Why? We’re a first-half team and these are the second-half subs—not trained up and not ready to hold the lead. You can’t put young people in that position and expect the best. This is the Pentagon’s downgrading of Military Operations Other Than War (MOOTW) coming home to roost.
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