Orwellian

Digby has a post today about a couple of events that are outrageous yet they have become so commonplace that we have become complacent -- more praise and promotion for the corrupt wrong-doers. First there's General Geoffrey Miller who was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal,"for exceptionally commendable service in a position of great responsibility" when he retired recently.

Digby says:

His role was never adequately examined in the press. He was an artillery officer with no experience in interrogation who was called in to do some leg-breaking in Guantanamo when the former commandant refused to torture the prisoners. And when he showed himself to be sufficiently capable of overseeing a torture regime there he was sent to Abu Ghraib to show them how it was done. For some unknown reason, he kept leaving rotten apples in his wake everywhere he went.

And then there's the guy sitting in judgment of any potential criminal conduct in the notorious deaths in Haditha. Reuters reports:

The defense officials were quoted as saying the report also found commanders had created a climate that minimized the importance of Iraqi lives, particularly in Haditha, where insurgent attacks were rampant, The New York Times said.

Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the new top Marine general in U.S. Central Command, is due to decide on whether charges are warranted, officials said this week.

But as Digby points out:

the guy [General Mattis] who declared that "it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them" is ruling on a report that found "commanders had created a climate that minimized the importance of Iraqi lives." That's just SOP in Bushworld