Should Rumsfeld resign over the Iraqi-prisoner abuse scandal?

arcadegame2004

Should he go over the Iraqi-prisoner abuse scandal? I say "Yes". According to Paul Bremer, the US knew about this as far back as February but were too slow to act. I was horrified to read this report in today's Irish Independent:

"'Some prisoners die . . . so what?'

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A US soldier's video diary shows her saying coldly about two Iraqi prisoners who died in custody: "Who cares? That's two less for me to worry about."

The female soldier guarded detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, from where sickening photographs of soldiers abusing detainees have emerged.

In her video diary, broadcast by the CBS 60 Minutes II programme last night, the unidentified soldier says: "We actually shot two prisoners today. One got shot in the chest . . . one got shot in the arm. We don't know if the one we shot in the chest is dead yet."

Her video also documented the time she spent guarding prisoners at Camp Bucca, in southern Iraq.

Showing a snake, she says: "This is a sand viper. One bite will kill you in six hours. We've already had two prisoners die of it, but who cares? That's two less for me to worry about."

She said she was a fearsome guard: "They are scared of me. I actually got in trouble the other day because I was throwing rocks at them."

Another soldier, Lisa Girman, complained about "the ignorance of the chain of command not to listen to the person who was actually on the front line". "

So much for an improvement on Saddam!

LegacyUser

I'd say the poll should read 'Should Rumsfeld resign because the world now knows about Iraqi-prisoner abuse?'

I'm sure the abuse wasn't only known about months ago but was endorsed official practice

voted yes by the way

vorbis

voted no. Don't believe that it was an official policy from the top down.

MeatProduct

Should he resign? Yes
Will he resign? Certainly not.

Nick

kahlua

Voted Yes - He was a driving force in going to war in Iraq, he should have to deal with the consequences.

mike65

Pity theres no Not Sure option. He is the defense minister and as such should be aware of whats going on
on the other hand if no-one tells him....whether he should resign should be decided on what he does now its all out in the open.

Mike.

dahamsta

I think it's pretty obvious that a decision was taken by those responsible not to let this info get up the line, which would support that Mike, but you'd have to wonder whether a decision was taken by the higher-ups to let that happen too. Personally I wouldn't hold Rumsfeld responsible for this particular incident, but I would hold him responsible for the circumstances that led to it. It strikes me that the current administration would be big supporters of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

The American situation is kind of sickening when you think about it, because not only is there no-one taking responsibility, there's no-one saying clearly that heads will roll for it either. At least not in the coverage I've seen. Lots of rhetoric of course, but more "we have to see this stopped" than "we're gonna open a can of whupass on the bastards responsible". Very weasely imho.

adam

Sand

He bears the civillian responsibility for the armed forces. The armed forces themselves seem to have done what was required in terms of policing themselves - the soldiers involved have been off duty since January afaik, with the report filed by an officer waiting for Rumsfelds review.

The fact that he did not review it, or did not view it as important enough to tell Bush is staggering - it wouldnt take a genius to work out how damaging the atrocities in that prison would be to Coalition efforts in Iraq ( which for me doesnt lend any credence to the view that these activities were ordered from on high - it makes absolutely no sense ).

Rumsfeld at this stage needs to be cut loose to underline how seriously the US take this, not for the fact that the abuses happened which realistically happened on the other end of an immense bureacracy, but rather for failing to respond with appropriate speed to the evidence of abuse - the fact that it had to be leaked before Rumsfeld found the time in his social calender to actually sit down to read it is not acceptable. Trying to "tough it out" sends all the wrong signals.

mike65

One suspects it'll be the pollsters who decide ultimately

Mike.

Tommy Vercetti

Does it even matter, considering who will replace him?

arcadegame2004

Even if he did not order the abuse ( and he probably didn't though I suspect he may have tried to cover it up ), his coining of the new term "enemy combatant" - as a new category of prisoner whose treatment is not supposedly subject to the rigours of the Geneva Convention - seems to me to have amounted to a precursor for the abuse we have now learned about in Iraq, because it set a precedent whererby prisoners in a conflict zone can now be subjected to torture, sleep-deprivation and no visits by the Red Cross. That alone is a resigning matter, in my opinion.

hallelujajordan

Not only Rumsfeld should go . . . .

The commander in chief must take responsibility for the actions of his army.