Quote Originally Posted by Oneironaut View Post

If I'm not mistaken, there was a huge scandal about how it was believed that many higher-authorities got away scott-free by letting the blame fall solely on those "young knuckle-heads." I'll look some more into that later on, because I honestly don't remember.
I think that when one is given absolute power (such as the people in the scandal you mentioned), one will abuse absolute power. There have been studies done on the subject and unfortunately "evidence" brought forth by the media. No, I don't agree that the "higher-ups" should be allowed to get away with pinning it on the guards at Abu Ghraib because they knew what was going to happen when they granted those guards absolute power.

Because people are given orders to gather information "by any means necessary" they will have officially turned any investigation into a glorified "Witch Hunt". Which is also why people will become either fearful enough or pissed off enough to admit to whatever they are being charged with thus granting the Investigator MORE absolute power.

I'm not sure how much actual information was brought to light by the techniques that had been blasted all over the media here in the US, but I'm fairly convinced that it was all information that the detainee's THOUGHT the Investigators wanted to hear.

I believe that we (the US) are not the only countries employing torture techniques to gather information from POW's. I also believe that statements such as "by any means necessary" should not be used and absolute power should never be granted in times of war. But, alas, I couldn't say or even imagine what I would do if ever granted absolute power.