General Petraeus acknowledges the US has violated the Geneva Conventions and international law

This is follow-up to a previous article about reasons why people who are pro-peace must take action NOW to help President Obama to further change America’s image in the world instead of continuing practices that contributed to that evil image. Two evils in no way equal any noble cause.

My personal opinion is that senior military leaders who were in G.W. Bush’s chain-of-command during the incicents in question are trying to both unsuccessfully distance themselves from responsiblity for the very evil acts they took part in as members of the Chain-of-Command, plus at the same time transition into Obama administration policy that is putting it meakly down on torture. In the event the Bush/Cheney crime syndicate should miraculously be brough to trial, these senior military leaders in his chain-of-command are able to say the devil made us do it. Generals you cannot have you Abu Gahrab and GITMO and deny it too.

So many former members of Bush’s military chain of command running for cover only tells me that neither Bush/Cheney nor the gang of thugs that brough disgrace upon our nation in the eyes of the international community will ever be brought to trail, but a few senior military leaders obviously fear so. Why? In any Chain-of-Command shit, crud, and evil rolls down hill. No more Colonels or even Captains can now be scapegoats for a federal government policy.

Unfortunately, President Obama is doing all he can to block release of the photos, supporting a bill co-sponsored by Senators Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham that will re-write the Freedom of Information Act to prevent the release of the torture and abuse photos.

Gen. Petraeus: "Well, actually what I would ask is, ‘Does that not take away from our enemies a tool which again have beaten us around the head and shoulders in the court of public opinion?’ When we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Conventions we rightly have been criticized, so as we move forward I think it’s important to again live our values, to live the agreements that we have made in the international justice arena and to practice those."

Last Sunday, General Ricardo Sanchez, the former commander of all coalition forces in Iraq, called for a truth commission to investigate the abuses and torture which occurred there. General Sanchez also stated, "During my time in Iraq there was not one instance of actionable intelligence that came out of these interrogation techniques."

As Bush and Cheney scramble to defend their actions, making false claims about the effectiveness of the techniques and the military’s desire to use them, we must be very clear: the most senior generals, the ones we trust with our sons and daughters lives – who literally formed the battle plan – are saying Bush and Cheney were wrong.

Complaints about the use of torture are no longer arising only from partisan political views but we must congradulate these non-partisan soldiers for their brave and honest words. However, we must also hold them responsible for following the orders of their chain-of- command. This sounds too much like former senior military officers once loyal to President Bush are now turning on him and Dick Cheney to save their own skins.

The legal, moral, and ethical question that would have been asked at the Nuremburg trials is if you gentlemen as senior military members within the President’s chain of command passionately and morally felt your Commander-In-Chief was WRONG, then why did you carry out his orders. Why did you not speak out then, or at the minimum retire in protest over violations of the Geneva Convention? Major Hanafin.