A Torturous Week Part 1….

The unsung hero at Abu Ghraib prison

The Virginian-Pilot
© May 12, 2004

No one in Cresaptown, Md., is planning a parade when Army Spc. Joe Darby returns home from Iraq with his reserve unit.

Whistle-blowers never are rewarded with parades or celebrations.

Yet, Darby is the only member of the 372nd Military Police Unit based in western Maryland who deserves hero status.

Unfortunately, they don’t give medals for the kind of courage Darby showed when he informed his superiors about the way his buddies in the 372nd were debasing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.

It would have been a lot easier for him to keep his mouth shut. Fortunately, his conscience and his sense of duty as an American soldier won out over the powerful instinct of self-preservation.

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Darby slipped an anonymous note under the door of his commander in January describing how his fellow reservists were stripping prisoners naked and forcing them to pose for humiliating pictures. He came forward a few days later, told his story and handed over a computer disk with a sordid gallery of 1,000 pictures documenting the atrocities.

Darby’s act of conscience lit the fuse on a scandal that has shamed the nation in the eyes of the world and threatens to topple the military and civilian leadership in the Pentagon. It has even forced President Bush, a man who never admits to error, to make a humbling apology.

Seven members of Darby’s unit face courts-martial, with the first scheduled next week in Baghdad. Darby will win no popularity contests back at home or in the Army. The incident has wounded the military’s reputation for professionalism and stained the nation’s honor in the eyes of the world.

In all the furor, we should not lose sight of the only bright spot in this shabby episode — Darby’s fortitude and the self-correcting nature of our democracy.

There’s something reassuring about a system that empowers a lowly GI to bring to account the most powerful people in the country. Darby’s bravery reminds us of what’s best in the American character.