Iraqi General Dies During U.S. Interrogation

OK, this officially concerns me, presuming the facts are as reported. Lack of clarity as to how we treat terrorist detainees doesn’t excuse this. This guy was a captured uniformed officer. As such, he was presumably entitled to POW status. The Army trains every soldier how to treat POWs. I’ve personally trained thousands of them. And of course, even a captured terrorist would be entitled to better treatment than this under Common Article II of Geneva.

Given the content of these legal opinions, the top lawyers for the uniformed services would not have approved. The guys who did this appear to have been acting in violation of rules they knew. This is a criminal matter. Now we brace ourselves for yet more disproportionate news coverage and its employment as a tool to discredit the armed forces, the administration, and the war (of course). The enemy gets a propaganda victory and the not-so-loyal opposition at home gets more headlines because one group of guys decided to break the law. Nice going, guys.