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• Monday, December 1, 2008 06:35 AM

  yes, Graner is being more severely punished than his cohorts ... he was the alpha dog in that unit ...

  irrc, his prior experience as a prison guard (civilian) and his age and experience as a member of the military added too ... my impression was that HE very much wanted to please and impress the big-boys in military intelligence ... and they were pleased and impressed, very pleased, glowing with praise ...

  He should have had the knowledge, the seniority and sense of responsibiity to at least protect HIS underlings ... he was a bad leader, he let things spiral out of control, a responsibility he still seems to refuse to acknowledge ... as in the following:

  Graner didn't hold out much hope for a change in his situation. "When I first arrived at [prison], both the commandant and the deputy commandant told me that I had embarrassed the Military Police Corps and that because of that I would never receive any type of clemency or parole from them," Graner wrote. "This could have all been talk, but so far all of my co-accused are out of prison. I have received no clemency or parole."

  As I recall his "co-accused" were his underlings ... I seem to recall his defiance wrt both the "wrongness" of his own acts and his further responsibility for the acts of others (he was coach and cheerleader) factored into the lack of "charity" on the part of the military commission.

  I'd much rather see him paroled with sentence commuted to community service ... say, orderly duty in a nursing home or non-Veteran's Administration rehab unit, some "sweat equity" towards the process of regaining his humanity... unfortunately, he seems to still be stuck in "victim" mode ...

  —susan sunflower Read susan sunflower's other letters
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