Rummy Joins the Village People (Well, not exactly)

If Donald "happiness is a warm gun" Rumsfeld was one of the Village People which one would he be. My bet is on the cop'. Of course, in order for that hat to fit he would probably have to be a Brazilian cop' with a freshly emptied clip in his pistol and a pile of fresh meat lying at his feet. Still, enough of this reverie . The reason that I evoke this sordid image is because although it may have been the Village People who said "You can't stop the music, nobody can stop the music", its Rummy who says "You can't stopthe torture", or practically the same thing.

The following dialog is taken from a US DoD website which contains the transcript of a press conference which took place on Thursday, 29 November, 2005. This event was attended by both Rummy and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace. Its a nice little piece which once again demonstrates that despite their occasional all too obvious faults the military are generally not only more sensible than their political masters, they also have a more developed moral sense. But you hardly needed me to tell you that, did you?

Incidentaly, the emphases are mine, but this is exerpted with adequate context. The "Q" indicates a question from the press, here someone identified as "Pam".

Q Sir, taking on Charlie's question a bit -- and I can give you actual examples from coalition forces who talked to me when I was over there -- about excesses of the Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Defense, and that is in dealing with prisoners or in arresting people and how they're treated after they're arrested. What are the obligations and what are the rights of the U.S. military over there in dealing with that? Obviously, Iraq is a sovereign country now, but the United States is responsible for training and expects to turn over the security mission to them. So what is the U.S. obligation in addressing that, preventing that? And what can we do? And what are we doing?

SEC. RUMSFELD: That's a fair question. I'll start, and Pete, you may want to finish. But we are working very hard to train and equip the Iraqi security forces. So is NATO. So are some neighboring countries. There are a lot of people involved in this and dozens of countries trying to help train these Iraqi forces.

Any instance of inhumane behavior is obviously worrisome and harmful to them when that occurs. Iraq knows of certain knowledge that they need the support of the international community, and a good way to lose it is to make a practice of something that's inconsistent with the values of the international community. And I think they know that.

Now, you know, I can't go any farther in talking about it. Obviously, the United States does not have a responsibility when a sovereign country engages in something that they disapprove of; however, we do have a responsibility to say so and to make sure that the training is proper and to work with the sovereign officials so that they understand the damage that can be done to them in the event some of these allegations prove to be true.

Q And General Pace, what guidance do you have for your military commanders over there as to what to do if -- like when General Horst found this Interior Ministry jail?

GEN. PACE: It is absolutely the responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene to stop it. As an example of how to do it if you don't see it happening but you're told about it is exactly what happened a couple weeks ago. There's a report from an Iraqi to a U.S. commander that there was possibility of inhumane treatment in a particular facility. That U.S. commander got together with his Iraqi counterparts. They went together to the facility, found what they found, reported it to the Iraqi government, and the Iraqi government has taken ownership of that problem and is investigating it. So they did exactly what they should have done.

SEC. RUMSFELD: But I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it.

GEN. PACE: If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it.