The prison compound known as Abu Ghraib in Baghdad, Iraq was infamous under the regime of Saddam Hussein as a place of horrible atrocities, torture and murder. A place so despicable that the only way to diminish the evil of the place was to destroy it-instead the American military used it as its own Iraqi detainee center-and the evil lived under a new regime. More than a year into the war in Iraq, amidst a scandal of Iraqi prisoner abuse by members of the American military that has stunned and angered the world, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld tried to explain to the United States congress how something like this could have happened, and why it took CBS News to inform the nation, including the Congress and the president, of the gravity of the atrocities. There was a sense that no explanation would be sufficient.Allegedly, certain members of the 800th Military Police Brigade, charged with guarding Iraqi detainees, abused and degraded prisoners over a period of time, unchecked by higher authorities. The alleged abuse was physical and mental-often sexually humiliating, and well documented with photos and video taken by the very guards conducting the abuse. The extent of the abuse was purportedly not made clear up the chain of command until the atrocious perversions were broadcast on national television last week, rocking the country all the way up to the White House.The pictures told the story that official reports only alluded to, and never fully detailed. Rumsfeld told us more is yet to come out-we have not seen the worst of it.When I first heard of the accounts of Iraqi prisoner abuse by American military members, I was doubtful, but as more information surfaced I became angry and resentful. As a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, I have served in 2 wars and have made many sacrifices for my country. I have mourned the loss of comrades and the deaths of enemies. I have held back tears-trying not to think of whom I had helped kill each day, as I watched B-52’s that I loaded, carpet-bomb a country into near oblivion in Vietnam.In the first Gulf War, I flew into the blistering Arabian desert, sweating under the burden of a full chemical suit, feeling my heart racing, looking over my shoulder for scud missiles loaded with chemical weapons, praying I could get to a shelter in time if the siren sounded its warning. As we flew in and out of the war zones, each time we took off in our lumbering cargo plane, I looked for the deadly smoke tracers of the shoulder missiles that could blow us out of the sky-although there was nothing that could be done had I seen the smoke. Through it all, whether I agreed with policy or not, I served my country with pride and dignity. I was one of the lucky ones and retired without a scratch more than 20 years after I first raised my hand pledging an oath to defend my country with my life. Thus, it is with embarrassment and humiliation that I learn about the atrocities in Abu Ghraib committed by my brothers and sisters in uniform. I am not naive enough to believe that wars are honorable-they can bring out the worst in otherwise normal people. I still carry the shame of my own generation’s Mi Lai massacre where a few misguided solders wiped out a village in Vietnam-more than 350 defenseless men, women and children. War can make heroes too, and bring out the best in some people, but each time something like Mi Lai or Abu Ghraib happens, demonstrating the wickedness of war, it overshadows any good 100 -to -1. It will take months, maybe years, to understand what happened at Abu Ghraib. As horrible as the abuse was, what is as bad is that the military apparently didn’t take the initiative to correct the abuse. Despite warnings from the International Red Cross, and the reporting of the abuse by soldiers within the prison complex, the authorities didn’t treat the matter seriously. Only when CBS News aired the photos that told the graphic story, did the military take action-and at first that action, as disclosed in Senate committee testimony, was for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard B. Myers, to try to persuade CBS News to delay airing the pictures. As the nation reeled in shock from the photos disclosed in the news, Senator Evan Bayh (D-Indiana), spelled out the seriousness of the Army’s neglect in the Senate hearing when he said, “The buck stops at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.” When asked if he felt he should resign his position of secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld answered: “If I felt I could not effectively carry out the duties of the office I would resign…but not to satisfy a political witch-hunt.” I am too enraged over the affair to offer an objective opinion on whether there should be wholesale changes made in policy and staff at the war department, but I think it is time to clean house. In my view, this administration has proved to be arrogant, impulsive, disorganized, self-righteous, and short-sighted in regards to the war on terror and the war in Iraq-two separate issues in this woman’s thinking. They have allegedly abused the civil rights of our own citizens and the human rights of detainees within our own borders, in Guantanamo, Cuba, and in Iraq.Even if the general staff were not complicit in the Abu Ghraib abuses, their participation in the atmosphere of arrogance that pervades this administration is undeniable. To keep the present command structure would be another slap in the face to the rest of the world, something, which would put our sons and daughters in Iraq in more danger. The soldiers who allegedly committed these crimes should be court-martialed, and if found guilty, should receive the maximum sentences allowed by the UCMJ (uniform code of military justice). And I think the general staff including officers from the prison complex to the theater generals, to the pentagon-including the secretary of defense should be dismissed. As for the man at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue-we will see how the nation feels come this November. “If I felt I could not effectively carry out the duties of the office [of Secretary Defense] I would resign…but not to satisfy a political witch-hunt.” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to the Senate Armed Services Committee, May 7, 2004.