Criminal behavior, political profiteers

We are appalled, like all Americans, to learn that rogue American soldiers and military contractors may have participated in abusing Iraqi prisoners. President Bush has straightforwardly addressed the matter on television appearances broadcast to the world. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appropriately labeled this behavior “totally unacceptable and un-American” and vowed to bring to justice those who engaged in this shameful behavior.

What also is contemptible in its own right as well is the effort by some politicians and pundits to exploit this episode to score partisan points. Writing yesterday in The Washington Post, for example, columnist Anne Applebaum suggested that there was a link between Nazi and Soviet concentration camps — where millions were murdered as a result of deliberate state policy — and the American abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Ms. Applebaum also suggested that Mr. Rumsfeld’s zeal in pursuing the war against terrorism and its state sponsors may have played a role in the abuse of the Iraqi prisoners. Sen. Joseph Biden, Delaware Democrat (and someone who should know better), all but suggested that Mr. Rumsfeld, as the rogue soldiers’ boss, should be cashiered.

The assertions that Mr. Rumsfeld should resign over this are ludicrous and mendacious in the extreme. With several million American troops under his command, no secretary of defense can be expected to ensure in advance that every single member of the armed forces will behave appropriately. What can and should be demanded of Mr. Rumsfeld is that, once he becomes aware that soldiers serving under him may have behaved in a matter that brings disgrace to their country, he investigate and take action — which is exactly what he is doing now.

When it comes to pure chutzpah, however, the reaction in the Arab world is second to none. Arab governments and institutions routinely looked the other way when Saddam Hussein murdered hundreds of thousands of Iraqis over several decades and said nothing, and stand piously mute as Arab terrorists routinely kill Israelis, including schoolchildren. Now they’re indignant over the allegations of mistreatment of Iraqis by American soldiers.

At the Qatar-based Al Jazeera, for example, a spokesman said that the reports of prisoner abuse at the hands of Americans do not surprise. In Syria, where the current dictator’s late father killed 20,000 men and women in putting down an Islamist insurrection in one city, the state-controlled press claims that U.S. troops routinely use torture. Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, denounced the abuse as committed by “members of the forces which pretend to defend the liberties and dignity of man.”

Nevertheless, it is absolutely critical that the investigation of American abuse of prisoners be conducted in the open and that no one in the chain of command be immune from scrutiny. There are serious unanswered questions about the performance of Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the warden responsible for overseeing military prisons in Iraq. She seems to have mastered the bureaucratic art of blaming others for her own failings. We hope Gen. Karpinski will be required to explain soon — not on television — what she did to stop the abuse.