Military analyst William Arkin gave in an op-ed in Sunday's Los Angeles Times (05/16/04) gives a good, straightforward description on why clear rules of conduct in intelligence and prisoner-interrogation and their enforcement through military discipline are needed, in a war zone especially: The Making of a Mob.
Thirty years ago, when I joined Army intelligence, it was routine to take a ribbing about military intelligence being an oxymoron. Most of us were Friedrichs and Browns. But mixed among us were more than a few cowboys and fantasists, James Bond wannabes in love with the secrecy and the power. More than once in my three years in Cold War West Berlin, these types got into trouble, breaking rules, compromising operations, even flirting — or worse — with the Soviet or East European intelligence services. What kept it all going were clear rules, solid training and the elaborate customs and hierarchy of military discipline.
That was in a cold war: Hot war is dirtier. The process of outsmarting your opponent, controlling his territory, overrunning his objectives, shooting and being shot at, and taking human life is so stressful and potentially dehumanizing that clearly understood rules are even more crucial. When policies become muddled, when leaders fail or falter, when discipline breaks down, then the door is opened to disaster. ...
But as the tumbrels clatter on, let us also keep something else clear in our minds: that we, represented by the American fighting men and women stuck in the muddled and hopeless endeavor of Iraq, are in way over our heads.
This is something those who tell themselves they are "supporting the troops" by excusing or defending torture in Bush and Rummy's gulag should really take into consideration.
(Unfortunately, links to some of the Los Angeles Times op-ed pieces become obsolete after a few weeks.)
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