Easy To Understand

Jack over at RandomFate has some thoughts regarding the recently completed and infamous Charles Graner trial. Graner, for those of you living under I-Raq (get it?), is the supposed ringleader of all those "horrible" atrocities committed upon prisoners at the Abu Ghirab prison in Iraq. As a result of the trial, Graner was convicted and faces all sorts of interesting punishment up to and including numerous years in the big house where he will presumably be able to explore further methods of prisoner treatment; only this time from the perspective of the imprisoned.

Jack focuses on the statements Graner made while on the witness stand during the penalty phase of his trial. These statements were unsworn, meaning he couldnt be cross examined by the prosecution. In those statements, Graner essentially reinforces his defense claims that everyone was doing weird stuff to the prisoners, including civilian contractors, and that he was just following orders from superiors.

Jack appears to attach great import to these statements because they "dont have the ring of insincerity that a statement intended solely to avoid punishment would have been freighted with."

I beg to differ. I think Graner's statements on the witness stand during the penalty phase were much more insincere than any he might have made to avoid punishment. In fact, I think they rise to the level of "total chickenshit". Here is why:

1. Graner's attorney didnt put him on the stand during the trial. Obviously he didnt want his client being put in the position of being sworn in and then cross examined regarding his behavior at Abu Gharib. One can only speculate why the attorney didnt want this to happen however it is pretty safe to assume it wasnt because Graner had wholesome humanitarian stories to tell.

2. Contrary to what Jack says, Graner's unsworn testimony WAS designed to avoid punishment. Why else would his attorney put him on the stand during the penalty phase? Obviously he was up there trying to save his pathetic ass with unsupported and unsworn stories about how it really wasnt his fault and if he was smiling in the infamous photos, well, it was only at the incongrous nature of the situation as ordered by superiors and NOT the abject humiliation of the prisoners. With no fear of withering cross examination, that putz could say anything he wanted and no one could say different AND the jury could use that testimony, if they so chose, to mitigate the punishment. In my opinion, that makes his "testimony" completely insincere and, as said before, totally chickenshit.

I know the left, and all those poor, misguided folks out there who think somehow Donald Rumsfeld was responsible for Abu Gharib, dont want to hear this but here what took place at Abu Gharib:

Prisoners were humiliated, not tortured. This was done by a small group of moronic party type jackass guards who were poorly trained and insufficiently supervised. Charles Graner was the ringleader of this ragtag bunch of poor white trash. Because they are morons, they took suspect direction from intelligence officers and turned it into a world wide spectacle. Nothing more...nothing less. Those of you who honestly think they were "following orders" should consider this: at least two guards who were continually present during this nonsense DID NOT PARTICIPATE and, in fact, reported the bahavior TO THEIR SUPERVISORS which is how this whole investigation got started in the first place. In other words, obviously the guards had a choice in all of this and the dipshits chose to be dipshits and the honorable chose to be honorable.

In the end, the jury didnt buy any of Graner's chickenshit. Good for them. Jack says "if we dont face up to our "failings", then we will be no better than those who oppose us". Jack, here's a clue...we ARE facing up to our failings...and those failings are being sent to prison, one trial at a time. Something good IS coming of this, albeit slowly and somewhat in a torturous fashion but it IS coming to fruitiion.

It's easy to understand and it's as simple as that.

Posted by Mr. Helpful at January 16, 2005 09:06 AM