The first paragraph gets right to it:
Quote:
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The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld’s decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of élite combat units, and hurt America’s prospects in the war on terror.
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At first I thought the calls for Rumsfeld's resignation were partisan and without merit. I still think its a little premature, but it is becoming clearer that the abuses seen at Abu Ghraib were not simply the fault of a few bad guards acting on their own volition. What happened at Abu Gharib went exactly as planned by the people at the top, right up until the whistle got blown and the pictures got released.
It's going to be much harder for the President to say Rumsfeld is doing a "super job" after this.
Still, as Joe Biden said,"this is somewhat bigger than Secretary Rumsfeld.I want to see the president do some swift and positive action here. Rumsfeld is part of the problem, not part of the solution. I don't care if he goes stand in a corner."