Thursday, August 30, 2007

Abu Ghraib Commander Exonerated, Washington Post Whines

Lt. Col. Steven Jordan was court martialed for his role in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and was exonerated. The jury found that he didn’t authorize the abuse nor did he engage in it.
This apparently doesn’t sit well with the Washington Post, which was one among many media outlets which trumpeted the story for weeks and insisted that this was not an isolated incident but was systemic and pervasive throughout the military. From the conservative blog Powerline:

This story in the Washington Post also provides no reason to doubt that justice was done. However, the Post sniffs that "the verdict means no officer will serve prison time in connection with the mistreatement of detainees at Abu Ghraib, leaving the harshest punishment for low-ranking soldiers who were shown in the infamous photographs that emerged in early 2004." This theme also appears in the subtitle of the story in the print edition. The Post thus seems unable to conceal its disappointment that the harshest punishment went to the people who actually engaged in the abuse, as opposed to bigger-shots who were never shown to be culpable.
(Bold mine).

Apparently, this is another situation where the facts didn't fit the narrative, but the Post was undeterred in their telling of a nice juicy story that smeared our entire military all the way along the chain of command up to and including the White House, which was the objective all along. Mission accomplished!

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