May 24, 2004 - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld promised the Senate Armed Services Committee last week that America would never again be embarrassed as it has been by the photos from the Abu Ghraib affair. He took a giant step yesterday toward achieving his goal. U.S. Military personnel serving in Free Iraq will no longer be permitted to possess mobile telephones with picture taking capabilities, digital cameras, camcorders or any other equipment that be used by the troops to violate the Geneva Conventions by taking incriminating photographs or videos. With one stroke of the secretarial pen Rumsfeld made his new found dedication to the Geneva Convention a part of military policy in Iraq. Pentagon sources told the press that the policy would be extended next week to apply to all US forces everywhere according to a piece in this morning’s Washington Times.

No longer will people detained in US custody have to fear having their pictures taken while they are being tortured, sexually abused, or otherwise humiliated. No longer will the American people have to fear that they will see pictures of American service personnel torturing prisoners spread on the pages of the morning newspapers or shown on TV. No longer will American service personnel have to worry that there may be photographic evidence that may come back to haunt them at a Court Martial. It is a giant leap forward and an example of what the Bush team calls “leadership”.

Notice how quickly the usually glacial Pentagon policy machine moved when prodded by the Secretary. Almost immediately the policy makers identified the problem – photographs. Almost immediately they moved to prevent a recurrence. It isn’t as precipitous as it seems. The policy of insuring that the battlefield is free of intrusive photograph started with the first campaigns of the war. Foreign journalists in position to obtain and publish embarrassing pictures have found themselves on the wrong side of the rules of engagement from the beginning. No one knows just how much a television camera resembles a RPG launcher unless they have been there. But the Pentagon was quick to recognize that the horrible pictures seeping out of Abu Ghraib weren’t coming from enemy cameras. They were friendly fire. It was Bush league leadership that recognized the problem and Bush league leadership that came up with the solution.

It is just the application of simple logic. It the American people and the world can’t find out that there is a problem then there is no problem for the American people and the world to find out about. The solution was first tried at Dover Air Force Base when footage of returning caskets was banned. The policy had a hole in its bucket and sprang a leak with the publication of photographs taken by an unauthorized digital camera. Then came those shocking pictures from Abu Ghraib. The solution was simple, direct and self evident – no more cameras, no more pictures.

That is Bush League Leadership – the American Way.