Posted by
Dawnsblood on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 5:14:50 PM
Patterico continues the
interview:
The article is amazingly accurate and even-handed. The
things that COL Bumgarner tried were good-faith efforts to make the
best of the situation. Many of the detainees also made good-faith
efforts to improve things, but I believe that any concessions were
hijacked by the extremists and used against everyone else’s efforts.
For example, the lights being dimmed, extra bedding, etc… were all used
to facilitate the successful suicides. But, before those changes had
not been at least tried, the extremists escalated the rhetoric against
us saying, “See? They will not do anything to make things better!”
As the article explains, there were competing objectives among the
detainees. Simply, we were in a Catch-22. If concessions were made, one
group would say that they could get even more by continuing to cause
problems. If concessions weren’t made, the reasoning was that they just
weren’t applying enough pressure. There is a hardcore group of
AQ there that will try to turn everything they can to their advantage.
They circulate untrue stories of torture, poisoned food, desecrated
Korans, and many other things. This keeps the tensions high and then they find a way to light the match.
Patterico gives excellent links to many interesting stories there. Please avail yourself.