Commenting on the House and Senate committee reports on the Iraq war, Los Angeles Times wrote:
After 9/11, President Bush wanted to go to war against Iraq in the worst way. “Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience,” a draft report by the administration’s special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, was published this month by the New York Times. The “hard lessons” the report commends to Obama seem common-sensical in retrospect: Don’t attempt an elaborate reconstruction program in an insecure environment. Attract and retain qualified employees and contractors. Ensure that the host country will endorse and help implement reconstruction efforts. To which must be added: Don’t terrorize the residents of the society you aim to rebuild.
That last lesson is at the center of the “Senate Armed Services Committee Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in US Custody.” It documents how “alternative” interrogation tactics such as forced nudity, stress positions and the use of dogs for intimidation “migrated” from Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan to Iraq. One result was the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The report lays the blame on Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and other officials who “conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees in US custody.”
Obama, who opposed the war in Iraq, might seem an unlikely audience for these cautionary tales. But he inherits from Bush a military and — yes — a nation-building mission in Afghanistan that could expand under his watch. As for torture, he already is receiving advice from those who believe that he will have to respond to terrorism with brutality. He should add these documents to his pre-inauguration reading list.
