Outrage erodes morale of troops

The worldwide furor over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers imperils troop morale at a crucial time, say lawmakers from both parties.

But what to do about it divides them, with Democrats blaming the Bush administration for creating a culture where it could happen and the Republicans accusing Democrats of hyping the situation in order to make political hay out of it.

“This happened in Vietnam,” said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican. “It’s happened in other wars, where the troops wondered if people are really behind them.”

Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, blamed Democrats who have been harshly critical of the war effort for eroding troop morale.

“I’m concerned that a number of members of Congress have lost their sense of balance,” he said. “They think their role here is to bash the American military. It is demoralizing for the troops.”

Mr. DeLay also targeted Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry for sending out a mass e-mail to supporters calling for Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld’s removal and soliciting campaign cash. It’s “unconscionable,” he said, for Mr. Kerry to use the abuse scandal as a “fund-raising gimmick.”

“Frankly, it’s disgusting,” Mr. DeLay said.

During the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings yesterday into the prison-abuse scandal, Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican, read one of the Kerry solicitations into the record and called them unprecedented.

“It goes on to demand that George Bush fire Donald Rumsfeld,” he said. “And then it goes on to a timeline, a chronology, and at the very last, it makes a solicitation for contributions. I don’t recall this ever having happened before in history.”

House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer said he also worries about troop morale, but blames the Bush administration for cultivating an atmosphere in the Abu Ghraib prison that allowed the abuse to occur.

“I am very concerned that we have compounded the individual actions with a policy that has clearly given to the world that this administration believes it can act as it sees fit without any outside check or balance,” the Maryland Democrat said.

Also, Mr. Hoyer said, the photos played into a perception that he said many foreigners already have of America as a renegade nation, acting virtually alone in the war on terrorism.

“This incident has been made worse by the world’s perception that this administration believes it can act in any way it sees fit without check,” he said.

But Mr. Hunter said that the attention already paid to the prison abuses has been more than enough and that it’s important not to let the actions of a few soldiers sully the reputations of 135,000 soldiers who are serving “honorably” in Iraq.

He also noted that the videotaped beheading of the American contractor from Philadelphia came in response to the public release of the abuse pictures and thus Mr. Rumsfeld was “exactly right” to keep the photos private and investigate according to regular military procedures.

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