Army aims for better detention practices.
I might be risking the same problem I had at the last blog- every time I linked a news story it attracted a shitload of junk comments and trackbacks. But it’s worth taking the chance because I want to comment about this.

When I went through my training at Fort Lost-in-the-woods, there were two MOSs training side-by-side within our company- regular MPs and Cage-Kickers. Back then we were “bravos” and “charlies” but the designation has changed since then. What has been going on with the detention facilities downrange is that they are being run by soldiers who aren’t corrections MPs. Sometimes they aren’t even MPs, period. Of COURSE the Army instructs anyone who is working in a facility like that to treat the detainees with respect and dignity, etc. But they’re not specifically trained for it, any more so than a unit of reservists with a week long L & O crash-course are MPs. This is like taking some guy who works at the garage, giving him a badge and calling him a policeman. Not all soldiers are the same. When I was still active, I would never have expected to be handed a key to the DFAC and to be told to go cook for several hundred soldiers. Why anyone thinks that allowing anyone other than a corrections MP to handle detainee operations is a good idea is beyond my comprehension. This fellow that they interviewed for the story says it perfectly: “We need to have the skill sets.”

So use the people who have them! If there’s an MOS for it, they’ve already acknowledged that it is a different skill set required for these operations.

Please excuse me while I wrap my head in 100mph tape, so it doesn’t fucking explode all over my shiny new blog.