From Interstate - Journal of International Affairs VOL. 2014/2015 NO. 1

The Bush Administration and Torture: Who is Responsible for the Abuse at Abu Ghraib?

By Erik Eriksen
Interstate - Journal of International Affairs
2015, Vol. 2014/2015 No. 1 | pg. 2/2 |
Cite References Print

Conclusion

First, this article argued that the individual guards carrying out the abuse at Abu Ghraib were responsible for their actions, as they are moral agents who should have known that what they did was illegal. It also maintained that the argument of following superior orders is an unacceptable excuse, as soldiers have a duty to disobey orders they knew, or should have known, are illegal. Building on this, it argued that also the commanding officers are responsible for the actions of their subordinates. Miller, for example, ordered the abuse, and his general disregard for detainees made this kind of abuse likely to happen at some point. Karpinski, on the other hand, failed in her responsibility to discover and control these acts, as well as in her responsibility to take “appropriate measures” to enforce the rules of war.

The third section argued that also members of the American administration must be held responsible for the abuse. It argued that Rumsfeld is among these, as he encouraged and approved the abuse, and failed in his command responsibility to discover and control it. Further, it was argued that members of the administration, and especially President Bush, must be held responsible for the abuse due to their participation in formulating a conspiracy to commit war crimes. Lastly, it maintained that the arguments that the entire American people can be held responsible is unconvincing, as their influence on policy decisions is limited to elections – when they could not have known that abuse would take place.

Having argued that individuals all the way from those carrying out the abuse to the president himself are to blame, a more important question remains: who is more blameworthy? It is widely accepted that when actions “are not one’s own”,68 as when one is under orders, this may reduce one’s blameworthiness.69 This is a reasonable argument. It was the Bush administration that were the “minds” behind this abuse, legally challenging the accepted definitions of torture, doing what was in its power to defend this kind of widespread abuse as legal. Thus, the abuse is largely the actions of the government. However, Miller is also to blame, although less so than the administration. He was the one who designed the particular methods that led to the abuse, and who required prisons to make use of these. Further, these have, unlike the reservists carrying out the abuse, chosen the army as a career path. This, too, means that more should be expected from these ambitious individuals. For all these reasons, the highest-ranking individuals discussed here, from Major General Miller to President Bush, should be criminally prosecuted for their involvement in the Abu Ghraib torture.

References

18. U.S. Code, §§2340-2340A. Available at http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-113C.

Associated Press, ‘Fast Facts: Abu Ghraib Convictions’. Fox News (online), 27 September 2005. Available at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170603,00.html.

Baier, K. ‘Guilt and Responsibility’, in Individual and Collective Responsibility, 2nd edn., edited by Peter A. French (Rochester VT, Schenkman Books, 1998), pp. 93-116.

Bybee, J. S. ‘Memorandum for Alberto R. Gonzales Counsel to the President: Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18. U.S.C. §§2340-2340A’ (2002), in The Torture Papers: the Road to Abu Ghraib, edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, with an introduction by Anthony Lewis (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 172-217.

CBS News, ‘Abu Ghraib Dog Handler Sentenced’. CBS News (online), 11 February 2009. Available at http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500257_162-1676792.html.

The Conference of London of 1945, ‘Agreement for the Prosecution and Punishment of the Major War Criminals of the European Axis, and Charter of the International Military Tribunal. London’, 8 August 1945. Available at http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/350.

The Diplomatic Conference of Geneva of 1949, ‘Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War’, 12 August 1949. Available at http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/INTRO/375.

The Diplomatic Conference of Geneva of 1949, ‘Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War’, 12 August 1949, Art. 3(1), 3(1)(a). Available at http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/380.

The Diplomatic Conference of Geneva 1974-1977, ‘Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I)’, 8 June 1977. Available at http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/470.

Dratel, J. L. ‘The Legal Narrative’, in The Torture Papers: the Road to Abu Ghraib, edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, with an introduction by Anthony Lewis (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. xxi-xxiii.

The Economist, ‘Just a few bad apples?’ The Economist (online), 20 January 2005. Available at http://www.economist.com/node/3577249.

Fay, G. R. ‘AR 15-6 Investigation of the Abu Ghraib Detention Facility and 205th Military Intelligence Brigade (U)’ (2004), in The Torture Papers: the Road to Abu Ghraib, edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, with an introduction by Anthony Lewis (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 1018-1131.

Gray, J. G. The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle, with a new foreword by the author, and an introduction by Hannah Arendt (New York, Harper & Row, 1970).

Greenberg, K. J. ‘From Fear to Torture’, in The Torture Papers: the Road to Abu Ghraib, edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, with an introduction by Anthony Lewis (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. xvii-xx.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), ‘Getting Away with Torture?: Command Responsibility for the U.S. Abuse of Detainees’. (HRW, 2005).

Hylton, W. S. ‘Prisoner of Conscience’. GQ (online), September 2006. Available at http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/200608/joe-darby-abu-ghraib.

In re Yamashita, 327 U.S. 1 (1946). Available at http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=327&invol=1.

Keller, M. Torture Central: E-mails From Abu Ghraib (New York, iUniverse, 2008).

Lackey, D. P. The Ethics of War and Peace (Englewood Cliffs NJ, Prentice Hall, 1989).

Lewis, A. ‘Introduction’, in The Torture Papers: the Road to Abu Ghraib, edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, with an introduction by Anthony Lewis (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. xiii-xvi.

Maass, J. R. The Army’s Birthday: 14 June 1775. Available from http://www.history.army.mil/html/faq/birth.html.

The Nuremberg Trial, ‘Judgement: The Law of the Charter’. Available at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/judlawch.asp.

The Nuremberg Trial, ‘Two Hundred and Seventeenth Day, Monday, 30 September 1946’, Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Volume 22. Available at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/09-30-46.asp.

Risen, J. ‘The Struggle for Iraq: Treatment of Prisoners; G.I.’s Are Accused of Abusing Iraqi Captives’. The New York Times (online), 29 April 2004. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/29/world/struggle-for-iraq-treatment-prisoners-gi-s-are-accused-abusing-iraqi-captives.html.

Schmitt, E. ‘Iraq Abuse Trial Is Again Limited to Lower Ranks’. The New York Times (online), 23 March 2006. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/23/politics/23abuse.html?_r=1.

Sjoberg, L. and Gentry, C. E. Mothers, Monsters, Whores: Women’s Violence in Global Politics (London, ZED Books, 2007).

‘The Taguba Report. Article 15-6 Investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade’ (2004), in The Torture Papers: the Road to Abu Ghraib, edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, with an introduction by Anthony Lewis (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 405-556.

Tyson, A. S. ‘Army officer charged in Abu Ghraib prison abuse’. The Seattle Times (online), 29 April 2006. Available at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002960310_ghraib29.html.

The United Nations General Assembly, ‘Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment’, 10 December 1984. Available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/pdf/cat.pdf.

The United States v William L. Calley, Jr., First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 22 U.S.C.M.A. 534 (1973) – a case in the United States Court of Military Appeals. Available at: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/MYL_uscma.htm.

The United States Department of the Army, ‘The Law of Land Warfare’, FM 27-10, Department of the Army Field Manual’ (Washington, D.C., the Department of the Army, 1956). Available at http://www.aschq.army.mil/gc/files/fm27-10.pdf.

Walzer, M. Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations, 4th edn., With a New Introduction by the Author (New York, Basic Books, 2006).

Walzer, M. ‘Two Kinds of Military Responsibility’ (1980), in Michael Walzer, Arguing about War (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2004), pp. 23-32. Wasserstrom, R. ‘The Relevance of Nuremberg’. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 1:1 (1971), pp. 22-46.

Welsh, S. C. ‘Abu Ghraib Court Martial: "Ring Leader" Spc. Charles A. Graner, Jr., Sentenced to Ten Years’. Center for Defense Information (online), n.d. Available at http://www.cdi.org/news/law/abu-ghraib-graner.cfm.

White, J. ‘Abu Ghraib MP Slain In Bid for Redemption’. The Washington Post (online), 6 March 2009. Available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/05/AR2009030503676.html.

White, J. ‘Officer acquitted of mistreatment in Abu Ghraib case’. The Boston Globe (online), 29 August 2007. Available at http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/08/29/officer_acquitted_of_mistreatment_in_abu_ghraib_case.

Zimbardo, P. The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil (London, Rider, 2007).

Endnotes

  1. Risen, J. ‘The Struggle for Iraq: Treatment of Prisoners; G.I.’s Are Accused of Abusing Iraqi Captives’. The New York Times (online), 29 April 2004. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/29/world/struggle-for-iraq-treatment-prisoners-gi-s-are-accused-abusing-iraqi-captives.html (Accessed 24 March 2012).
  2. Its official name is the ‘Baghdad Central Confinement Facility’ (BCCF). ‘The Taguba Report. Article 15-6 Investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade’ (2004), in The Torture Papers: the Road to Abu Ghraib, edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, with an introduction by Anthony Lewis (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 408. This report will henceforth be referred to as ‘The Taguba Report’. The prison has also been referred to as the ‘Baghdad Central Correctional Facility’, see ‘The Taguba Report’, p. 448. The confinement facility will be referred to simply as ‘Abu Ghraib’.
  3. ‘The Taguba Report’, p. 416, cf. p. 449.
  4. ‘The Taguba Report’, pp. 416-417, 449.
  5. The Diplomatic Conference of Geneva of 1949, ‘Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War’, 12 August 1949, Art. 3(1)(a), 4, 13-16. Available at http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/INTRO/375 (Accessed 28 March 2012); the Diplomatic Conference of Geneva of 1949, ‘Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War’, 12 August 1949, Art. 3(1), 3(1)(a). Available at http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/380 (Accessed 28 March 2012); the United Nations General Assembly, ‘Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment’, 10 December 1984. Available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/pdf/cat.pdf (Accessed 28 March 2012); and 18. U.S. Code (U.S.C.), §§2340-2340A. Available at http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-113C (Accessed 28 March 2012). This interpretation of U.S.C. §§2340-2340A is, however, contested by Bybee, J. S. ‘Memorandum for Alberto R. Gonzales Counsel to the President: Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18. U.S.C. §§2340-2340A’ (2002), in The Torture Papers: the Road to Abu Ghraib, edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, with an introduction by Anthony Lewis (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005), esp. pp. 172-173, 183.
  6. Associated Press, ‘Fast Facts: Abu Ghraib Convictions’. Fox News (online), 27 September 2005. Available at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170603,00.html (Accessed 25 March 2012); CBS News, ‘Abu Ghraib Dog Handler Sentenced’. CBS News (online), 11 February 2009. Available at http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500257_162-1676792.html (Accessed 25 March 2012); and White, J. ‘Abu Ghraib MP Slain In Bid for Redemption’. The Washington Post (online), 6 March 2009. Available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/05/AR2009030503676.html (Accessed 29 March 2012).
  7. Tyson, A. S. ‘Army officer charged in Abu Ghraib prison abuse’. The Seattle Times (online), 29 April 2006. Available at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002960310_ghraib29.html (Accessed 25 March 2012). Also see Schmitt, E. ‘Iraq Abuse Trial Is Again Limited to Lower Ranks’. The New York Times (online), 23 March 2006. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/23/politics/23abuse.html?_r=1 (Accessed 24 March 2012).
  8. White, J. ‘Officer acquitted of mistreatment in Abu Ghraib case’. The Boston Globe (online), 29 August 2007. Available at http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/08/29/officer_acquitted_of_mistreatment_in_abu_ghraib_case (Accessed 25 March 2012).
  9. Human Rights Watch (HRW), ‘Getting Away with Torture?: Command Responsibility for the U.S. Abuse of Detainees’. (HRW, 2005).
  10. Cf. Walzer, M. Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations, 4th edn., With a New Introduction by the Author (New York, Basic Books, 2006), pp. 40, 308.
  11. Cf. Lackey, D. P. The Ethics of War and Peace (Englewood Cliffs NJ, Prentice Hall, 1989), p. 83; Baier, K. ‘Guilt and Responsibility’, in Individual and Collective Responsibility, 2nd edn., edited by Peter A. French (Rochester VT, Schenkman Books, 1998), p. 100; and Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, p. 309.
  12. Cf. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, p. 6; and Walzer, M. ‘Two Kinds of Military Responsibility’ (1980), in Michael Walzer, Arguing about War (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2004), p. 27
  13. Cf. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, pp. 312-313.
  14. Cf. French, P. A. ‘The Responsibility of Monsters and Their Makers’, in Individual and Collective Responsibility, 2nd edn., edited by Peter A. French (Rochester VT, Schenkman Books, 1998), pp. 7, 12.
  15. French, ‘Monsters and Their Makers’, p. 7.
  16. Cf. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, p. 288.
  17. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, p. 309.
  18. Cf. the mitigation of punishment in the Conference of London of 1945, ‘Agreement for the Prosecution and Punishment of the Major War Criminals of the European Axis, and Charter of the International Military Tribunal. London’, 8 August 1945. Available at http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/350 (Accessed 23 March 2012), ‘Charter’, Art 8. This agreement will henceforth be referred to as ‘the Nuremberg Charter’. All references are to the ‘Charter’ rather than the ‘Agreement’.
  19. George W. Bush, Jr., cited inThe Economist, ‘Just a few bad apples?’ The Economist (online), 20 January 2005. Available at http://www.economist.com/node/3577249 (Accessed 25 March 2012). Cf. ‘The Taguba Report’, pp. 448-449.
  20. Zimbardo, P. The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil (London, Rider, 2007), p. x. Cf. ‘The Taguba Report’, p. 449.
  21. Welsh, S. C. ‘Abu Ghraib Court Martial: “Ring Leader” Spc. Charles A. Graner, Jr., Sentenced to Ten Years’. Center for Defense Information (online), n.d. Available at http://www.cdi.org/news/law/abu-ghraib-graner.cfm (Accessed 28 March 2012); and CNN, ‘Judge: Abu Ghraib a crime scene’. CNN (online), 21 June 2004. Available at http://articles.cnn.com/2004-06-21/world/iraq.abuse.trial_1_abu-ghraib-ivan-chip-frederick-guy-womack?_s=PM:WORLD (Accessed 28 March 2012).
  22. ‘The Taguba Report’, p. 416.
  23. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, pp. 306-309.
  24. The United States v William L. Calley, Jr., First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 22 U.S.C.M.A. 534 (1973) – a case in the United States Court of Military Appeals. Available at http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/MYL_uscma.htm (Accessed 23 March 2012) (henceforth, US v Calley). Emphasis removed. Cf. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, p. 306.
  25. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, pp. 313-316. Cf. the Nuremberg Trial, ‘Judgement: The Law of the Charter’.
  26. Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect, p. 404, cf. p. 411.
  27. Cited in Lackey, The Ethics of War and Peace, p. 83. Cf. the United States Department of the Army, ‘The Law of Land Warfare’, FM 27-10, Department of the Army Field Manual’ (Washington, D.C., the Department of the Army, 1956), section 509. Available at http://www.aschq.army.mil/gc/files/fm27-10.pdf (Accessed at 26 March 2012); the Nuremberg Charter, Art. 8; Wasserstrom, R. ‘The Relevance of Nuremberg’. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 1:1 (1971), p. 27; Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, p. 314; and Walzer, M. ‘Two Kinds of Military Responsibility’, p. 27.
  28. Cf. Baier, p. 98-99; Walzer, pp. 312-313.
  29. The threat of reprimands would not be sufficient. Cf. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, pp.313-316; and the Nuremberg Trial, ‘Two Hundred and Seventeenth Day, Monday, 30 September 1946’, Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Volume 22. Available at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/09-30-46.asp (Accessed 26 March 2012).
  30. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, p. 311.
  31. US v Calley. Emphasis removed.
  32. HRW, ‘Getting Away with Torture?’
  33. See for example Keller, M. Torture Central: E-mails From Abu Ghraib (New York, iUniverse, 2008).
  34. Sjoberg, L. and Gentry, C. E. Mothers, Monsters, Whores: Women’s Violence in Global Politics (London, ZED Books, 2007), p. 75.
  35. Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect, p. 412; and HRW, ‘Getting Away with Torture?’, p. 75.
  36. BBC News, ‘Iraq abuse ‘ordered from the top’’. BBC News (online), 15 June 2004. Available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3806713.stm (Accessed 27 March 2012); cf. HRW, ‘Getting Away with Torture?’, p. 76.
  37. HRW, ‘Getting Away with Torture?’, p. 76.
  38. HRW, ‘Getting Away With Torture?’, pp. 71-76; cf. the Taguba Report’, pp. 409-410; Fay, G. R. ‘AR 15-6 Investigation of the Abu Ghraib Detention Facility and 205th Military Intelligence Brigade (U)’ (2004), in The Torture Papers: the Road to Abu Ghraib, edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, with an introduction by Anthony Lewis (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 1035-1036 (henceforth ‘the Fay Report’).
  39. Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect, p. 414, cf. pp. 411-413. Cf. HRW, ‘Getting Away with Torture?’, pp. 63-64.
  40. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, p. 309.
  41. Lackey, The Ethics of War and Peace, p. 84.
  42. Sjoberg and Gentry, Monsters, Mothers, Whores, p. 79.
  43. Sjoberg and Gentry, Monsters, Mothers, Whores, p. 79; and Hylton, W. S. ‘Prisoner of Conscience’. GQ (online), September 2006. Available at http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/200608/joe-darby-abu-ghraib (Accessed 24 March 2012).
  44. The Trial of General Tomoyuki Yamashita in the United States Military Commission, Manila, cited in In re Yamashita, 327 U.S. 1 (1946). Available at http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=327&invol=1 (Accessed 28 March 2012). Cf. the Diplomatic Conference of Geneva 1974-1977, ‘Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I)’, 8 June 1977. Available at http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/470 (Accessed 27 March 2012); and French, ‘Monsters and Their Makers’, p. 7.
  45. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, pp. 319-321.
  46. Hylton, ‘Prisoner of Conscience’.
  47. ‘Judgment of the International Military Tribunal’, in Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal (Washington, D.C., 1947), Vol I, p. 226, cited in Wasserstrom, ‘The Relevance of Nuremberg’, p. 29.
  48. Its full name is ‘the Agreement for the Prosecution and Punishment of the Major War Criminals of the European Axis, and Charter of the International Military Tribunal’. See ‘The Nuremberg Charter’.
  49. The ‘ill-treatment of prisoners of war’ is here recognised as a war crime. ‘The Nuremberg Charter’, Art. 6. This author’s emphasis.
  50. ‘The Nuremberg Charter’, Art. 7.
  51. HRW, ‘Getting Away with Torture?’, p. 33.
  52. Title 10 of the United States Code, §162(b), cited in HRW, ‘Getting Away with Torture?’, p. 30.
  53. Mark Danner, at ‘A Question of Torture’, PBS Frontline, 18 October 2005, cited in Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect, p. 408; and HRW, ‘Getting Away with Torture?’, p. 33.
  54. Bybee, ‘Memorandum’, esp. pp. 172-173, 183; Lawrence Wilkerson, cited in Dowd, M. ‘System on Trial’, The New York Times (New York), 7 November 2005, cited in Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect, p. 433; Lewis, A. ‘Introduction’, in The Torture Papers: the Road to Abu Ghraib, edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, with an introduction by Anthony Lewis (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. xiii-xvi; Greenberg, K. J. ‘From Fear to Torture’, in The Torture Papers: the Road to Abu Ghraib, edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, with an introduction by Anthony Lewis (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. xvii-xx; and Dratel, J. L. ‘The Legal Narrative’, in The Torture Papers: the Road to Abu Ghraib, edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel, with an introduction by Anthony Lewis (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. xxii.
  55. Bybee, ’Memorandum’, p. 172.
  56. Bybee, ‘Memorandum’, pp. 172, 183. This author’s emphasis.
  57. Bybee, ‘Memorandum’, p. 172.
  58. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, p. 292.
  59. Bybee, ‘Memorandum’.
  60. Lewis, ‘Introduction’, pp. xiv-xv; and Greenberg, ‘From Fear to Torture’, p. xix. Cf. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, p. 293.
  61. See for example Gray, J. G. The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle, with a new foreword by the author, and an introduction by Hannah Arendt (New York, Harper & Row, 1970), pp. 196-199.
  62. Gray, The Warriors, p. 199. Cf. Walzer’s critique of this argument: Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, pp. 299-303.
  63. Baier, ‘Guilt and Responsibility’, p. 112.
  64. Cf. the earlier questions of whether individuals knew or should have known that abuse would take place.
  65. William Calley, cited in Esquire, ‘The Continuing Confessions of Lieutenant Calley’. Esquire, February 1971, cited in French, ‘Monsters and Their Makers’, p. 1., cf. French, ‘Monsters and Their Makers’, pp. 5, 7.
  66. Maass, J. R. The Army’s Birthday: 14 June 1775. Available at http://www.history.army.mil/html/faq/birth.html (Accessed 28 March 2012).
  67. Cf. Baier, ‘Guilt and Responsibility’, p. 114.
  68. Cf. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, p. 309.
  69. Cf. the mitigation of punishment in ‘the Nuremberg Charter’, Art. 8.
1 2
 
Cite References Print

Suggested Reading from Inquiries Journal

Political Science » Iraq War
President Bush, The Iraq Invasion, and "Enhanced Interrogation"
Martin Luther King, Jr. once wrote that “to ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it.”[1]  Although this statement was meant towards the civil rights movement, the idea equally applies in other instances, especially in times of war.  In March of 2003, the United States invaded Iraq in a preemptive attack against the tyrannical rule of Saddam Hussein.  Despite the fact that President Bush and his administration had advertised... MORE»
U.S. Torture Policy Enhanced Interrogation Iraq War War Crimes
Advertisement
Law & Justice » George W. Bush Presidency
The Bush Administration Torture Policy: Origins and Consequences
In March of 2002, US intelligence and law enforcement agents, in collaboration with Pakistani security forces, raided a compound in Faisalabad, Pakistan, where they captured the first “high value detainee” in the War on Terror. Their target, Abu Zubayda, was the alleged logistics chief of Al Qaeda, an organization he... MORE»
Political Science » George W. Bush Presidency
How Compassionate Was George W. Bush's Conservatism?
In this chapter, we will be observing the extent to which our 43rd President upheld his 2000 campaign promise to be a compassionate conservative. When observing George W. Bush’s “compassionate conservatism,” I will be constraining most of my focus on the compassionate aspect. In order to evaluate Bush’s performance in this campaign platform, a definition is needed. Compassionate conservatism: political... MORE»
Conservatism George W. Bush Patriot Act Hurricane Katrina
Political Science » George W. Bush Presidency
Colin Powell: Examining a Key Player in the Bush Administration
To understand an administration, you need to understand the key players. Through analyzing the Bush presidency, it is clear that the agenda was constructed and shaped by more than just one man. The President’s choice for executive cabinet members is the first major decision he will make and may affect the outcome of his presidency. The President’s cabinet is comprised of the most senior appointed officers in the executive branch of the... MORE»
Colin Powell Iraq War Bush Administration United Nations
Submit to Inquiries Journal, Get a Decision in 10-Days

Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines.

Representing the work of students from hundreds of institutions around the globe, Inquiries Journal's large database of academic articles is completely free. Learn more | Blog | Submit

Follow IJ

Latest in

European Politics
1997, Vol. 1996/1997 No. 1
What Future for a Polarised Europe?
By Andrew Jones
Published by Interstate - Journal of International Affairs
It is a paradox of modern day politics that an issue of such immense constitutional and practical significance to the future of Britain as that of further European integration, which excites such great activity amongst politicians, should be... Read Article »
European Politics European Union Governance
British Politics
1997, Vol. 1996/1997 No. 1
Change Within the Conservative and Labour Parties
By Chloe Campen
Published by Interstate - Journal of International Affairs
Much has changed in the past years yet we still have the same two dominant parties as we did in 1922. I do not intend to give a historical or purely ideological account but I intend to develop a greater understanding of the more recent changes... Read Article »
British Politics Political Parties Labour Conservative Party
British Politics
1997, Vol. 1996/1997 No. 1
Re-stating the Case for Monarchy
By Robin Burls
Published by Interstate - Journal of International Affairs
Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Aberystwyth, to open the new extension of the National Library of Wales, has predictably generated considerable furore in the local media, political circles and even the academe. The familiar siren... Read Article »
British Politics Monarchy British Commonwealth Queen Elizabeth
International Organizations
1997, Vol. 1996/1997 No. 1
The United Nations at 50 - Dead or Alive?
By Malcolm Harper
Published by Interstate - Journal of International Affairs
When we commemorated the United Nations’ 50th anniversary last year, we all asked the question – what has the UN achieved and is it a living or a largely moribund organisation, buried by the bureaucracy and corruption which the media... Read Article »
United Nations International Organizations
British Politics
1999, Vol. 1998/1999 No. 1
Q&A with Ted Rowlands MP
By Alexandros Karides
Published by Interstate - Journal of International Affairs
On the 14th of October 1998, Mr. Ted Rowlands, Labour MP for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhynmey, gave a brief talk on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of which he is a member and took questions from students and staff of the International Politics... Read Article »
British Politics Foreign Affairs Ted Rowlands NATO
British Politics
1999, Vol. 1998/1999 No. 2
In Defence of The Third Way: A Response to Peter Hand
By Paul Williams And Rob Dixon
Published by Interstate - Journal of International Affairs
In Issue 53 of Interstate, Peter Hand argued that the ‘Third Way’ was nothing but a well packaged combination of rhetoric and soundbites on the part of a government wholly obsessed by presentation.[1] Given the constraints of space... Read Article »
British Politics Third Way Tony Blair Neo-Liberalism Socialism Anthony Giddens Social Democracy
British Politics
1999, Vol. 1998/1999 No. 2
'Three Men And A Loan': The Fall of Peter Mandelson
By Chetan D. Sabnis
Published by Interstate - Journal of International Affairs
The Christmas of 1998 will be seen by political pundits in years to come as the first crisis to assail the ‘New Labour’ government of Tony Blair. I myself, remember sitting at home, having just returned from a short walk with the... Read Article »
British Politics New Labour Tony Blair Peter Mandelson

What are you looking for?

FROM OUR BLOG

What is the Secret to Success?
How to Use Regression Analysis Effectively
Presentation Tips 101 (Video)