The U.S. military justice system works. It effectively prosecutes criminal activity committed by troops, while preserving an accused member’s constitutional rights. One of the cornerstones of the system is the concept of unlawful command influence. Simply put, a commander must remain free to exercise his or her own discretion to impose discipline without inappropriate interference from a superior commander. Superior commanders must not make comments that would imply they "expect" a particular result in a given case or type of cases.

Critics, like Peter Beinart of the New Republic, have ruthlessly attacked Secretary Rumsfeld for his lack of “outrage” regarding the incidents at Abu Ghraib prison. These critics should be mindful that Secretary Rumsfeld is not in a position to demand court-martials or specific punishments for the members suspected of those offenses. Comments by him could be attributed to the officers responsible for charging those individuals, which would provide a classic argument for unlawful command influence and thereby endanger the prosecution.

The military must be allowed to effectively prosecute the offenses committed at Abu Ghraib. Proving our system works will further our goals for democracy in the Middle East. Hysteria and knee-jerk reactions will only weaken us and could destroy an otherwise strong case against those accused of mistreating the prisoners.

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Tracked on May 10, 2004 5:09 AM