Dysfunctional Army follows dysfunctional Prez into dysfuctional war

books:


	• Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator's Dark Journey Through Iraq Tony Lagouranis, Allen Mikaelian NAL Trade, 2008 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 8 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

good book and should be read by every American

shows the ugly truth of what we are being reduced to by the idiots running this country. Bush lovers beware - this aint for you.

Dysfunctional Army follows dysfunctional Prez into dysfuctional war

In addition to Tony's comments on torture and torture-lite in general, plus his personal involvement, I appreciate his take on the Army as it entered Iraq and then tried to tamp down the insurgency. (Note: My sister is a 20-year Reservist and former active-duty, so I've heard some stuff about Army politics, dysfunctionality at times, etc, elsewhere.) This is yet another fallout from an all-volunteer military, in my opinion, but that would be the subject for another book by itself.

The third main thing to enjoy is Lagouranis' humanness and degree of self-observation and self-analysis. Add to that the fact he was familiar with things like the Milgram experiment before going to Iraq, and Tony himself almost becomes a live-fire lab experiment on how even good-intentioned people can cut ethical corners, etc., then justify why they're doing that.

In short, Lagouranis' experience shows exactly why we have things such as Geneva Conventions, and why they're so carefully spelled out. Although he doesn't spell it out, the logical conclusion of discussion would be "A Man for All Seasons," where More says, in essence, when you jettison all laws in trying to attack the devil, what do you do when the devil attacks back without being hindered by law?

Sidebar: People who have one-starred this book are the same people Tony pointed out in the Army -- people who won't open their minds, have narrow to very narrow world views, and refuse to be challenged or contradicted.

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Are We Becoming the "Bad Guys?"

"Fear Up Harsh" is a military term for interrogation techniques that emphasize overpower threat and fear, but not to violate the Geneva Conventions. "Fear Up Harsh" also refers to a book written by an Army interpreter about his experiences in Iraq - first complying with the military limitations, but soon also including sleep deprivation, prolonged cold exposure, threats from snarling guard dogs, and loud noise. Other units (Navy Seals, Army Special Forces, other government groups) also used water-boarding and physical assaults, per their own admissions and the residual physical evidence.

Lagouranis (the author) arrived in Iraq nine months after "Mission Accomplished" and immediately was posted to Abu Ghraib. Living quarters there consisted of a noisy sea of cots with 6" free space on each side. Escapes were common - many Iraqi workers did not wear badges, and all a prisoner had to do was get out of a cell and change clothes.

Lagouranis encountered non-stop incompetence throughout his Iraq tour - superiors sensitive to covering up evidence of abuse, while lacking experience in intelligence, an incarceration rate about 10X that warranted by realty, and failure to share intelligence from one unit/agency with another. (The most extreme instance of the latter involved aerial surveillance of a former Army outpost that led to a night-time raid on Oil of Ministry staff who had the outpost turned over to them. Worse yet, it took over a week to release those taken into custody, despite ID badges, documenting paperwork, and the ability to corroborate stories with oil ministry headquarters.)

The military's on-going assumption was that any Iraqi thought be be related to someone bad (often misidentified via misunderstanding of Arab naming customs), near an incident (eg. even 200 yards), carrying something suspicious (a motorcycle battery or cell phone) had to know something worth revealing. Regardless of how guilty the person was, the interrogation technique used, or the proximity of interrogation to alleged act, I cannot recall a single instance of Lagouranis learning anything of value. (He also pointed out that he did not know what, if anything, the Seals and Special Forces learned.)

Needless to say, even relatively subdued "Fear Up Harsh" techniques applied to countless innocent civilians, combined with middle of the night Iraqi home searches, has not endeared the U.S. to Muslims. We have become the "bad guys" in their minds.

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reviews: page 1, 2

"Something really bad happened here." So begins Army interrogator Tony Lagouranis's first briefing at Abu Ghraib. While Lagouranis's training stressed the rules of the Geneva Conventions, once in Iraq, he discovered that pushing the legal limits of interrogation was encouraged. Under orders, he-along with numerous other soldiers-abused and terrorized Iraqis by adding "enhancements" like dogs, hypothermia, and other techniques to "Fear Up Harsh"-the official tactic designed to frighten prisoners into revealing information. And he saw others do far worse. The first Army interrogator to publicly step forward and break the silence surrounding these tactics, Lagouranis reveals what went on in Iraqi prisons- raising crucial questions about American conduct abroad.

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