I hope I'm not the only one who caught this article (thanks to Slate) from the Baltimore Sun. It deals with the up-coming courtmartials of some of those soldiers involved in the Abu Ghraib prison situation.

It appears that the Pentagon (pushed no doubt by the same folks circling the wagons around Rumsfeld) to hurry along the courtmartial of several of the soldiers, even turning it into a media event. Sadly, it looks like the administration is going to try and destroy the lives of various enlisted men & women in order to cover their own butts.

I spent close to ten years in the Navy, over half of that working in the ship's office of several warships. I've seen first hand how 'military justice' is metered out. The most vivid recollection is seeing a non-com being stripped of his rank (demoted) for an accident which was all but caused by the actions of a Lt. Commander. Naturally, the officers closed ranks on this and even though a sailor lost his life (not to mention thousands of dollars in damage to two naval vessels) the court martial found the enlisted man was at fault.

I expect this to happen in spades with the men and women who found themselves in those photographs. Wisely the higher ups remained both behind the camera lens and (in the case of the Secretary of Defense) 'out of the loop.'