The first step toward establishing accountability for the Abu Ghraib atrocities was taken on Jan. 13, 2004, by Sgt. Joseph M. Darby of the US Army's 372nd Military Police Company. Sergeant Darby had asked Specialist Charles A. Graner Jr. whether he could download onto his computer some of the digital pictures he knew Graner had shot while their unit was in
Iraq. What he had expected was a travelogue.
What Darby found, he later testified, "[was] shocking. It violated everything that I personally believed in and everything that I had been taught about the rules of war."
Darby delivered the photos to military investigators. His action triggered a series of investigations and a worldwide outcry.
It took courage for Darby to stand up for justice. He must have known that it would make him a pariah with his colleagues, but he followed his conscience. Later, some of his neighbors back home in Maryland made it clear that they disapproved of Darby's actions. After hearing that he had been praised in Washington, one local veteran told the press, "They can call him what they want. I call him a rat." For his courage, Darby has received death threats, and the Army has had to provide him with special protection.
"To be courageous," wrote John F. Kennedy in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Profiles in Courage," "requires no exceptional qualifications.... It is an opportunity that sooner or later is presented to us all."
When the opportunity was presented to Joseph Darby, he grasped it and rescued American values from further degradation.
Monday Darby will be given the Kennedy Library Foundation's Profile in Courage Award by Caroline Kennedy for "upholding the rule of law that we embrace as a nation."
On Abu Ghraib: One sergeant's courage a model for US leaders - Yahoo! News
No comments:
Post a Comment