Responsible? Who me?

From the New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 — Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today he felt terrible about the military’s flawed handling of the death of Cpl. Pat Tillman, the former football star who was killed in Afghanistan. But he and other former Pentagon leaders insisted that there had been no attempt to cover up the way it happened.

....

“I do not recall when I first learned that Corporal Tillman’s death was fratricide,” Mr. Rumsfeld said, adding that it was probably after May 20, 2004, when he was told by a colonel about the possibility of a “friendly fire” incident.

Ah, the convenient memory lapse which comes at the time that one testifies under oath.

“I know that I would not engage in a cover-up,” Mr. Rumsfeld told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform today. “I know that no one in the White House suggested such a thing to me.”

Never in a million years would any of the upstanding public servants in the Bush maladministration suggest a cover-up. Never ever. We all know that.

Critics of the Bush administration have asserted that the circumstances of Corporal Tillman’s death may have been distorted, to exploit the soldier’s patriotic image and perhaps distract attention from an unfolding scandal over abuses of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers.

That suggestion was raised again today by Representative Henry A. Waxman, the California Democrat who is chairman of the committee. Mr. Waxman said the reports of the death were deliberately manipulated to counter bad news about battlefield casualties as well as the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, near Baghdad.

Surely not, Rep. Waxman. Whatever would make you say that? How long would it have taken for the abuses at Abu Ghraib to come to light but for the pictures? What's going on right now in the prisons?

Tillman volunteered to serve and was killed by US troops. His family deserved more accurate and prompter information about the circumstances of his death from their government.

As an aside, I've often wondered that we accept the "friendly fire" euphemism. Is the term intended to provide consolation to the family of the deceased? Are their loved ones any less dead from "friendly fire"?

But retired Gen. Richard B. Myers, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, also rejected those assertions. And in sparring with Representative Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York, he opened a window on the Pentagon bureaucracy.

Yes, General Myers agreed, the Tillman family should have been notified at once that there was the possibility of a “friendly fire” tragedy.

“According to the Army regulations as I understand them, that’s correct,” said General Myers, who served in the Air Force. “By the way,” he continued, “the Marine regulations don’t. They don’t notify until they’re sure, as I understand.”

You see, no one in the very highest offices is ever responsible in this maladministration.

But Mr. [Thomas M. Davis, III of Virginia,] Davis, whose northern Virginia district includes many military families, tried to walk a tightrope, noting that “nothing in our inquiry thus far demonstrates that either the defense secretary or the White House were aware this was a friendly fire incident before late May.”

He said that presumptions that high-ranking officials must have been involved should not “color or cloud what our investigation is actually finding.”

God forbid!

Absent from the hearing was former Lt. Gen. Philip R. Kensinger, Jr., who was censured on Tuesday for his role in the Tillman case and could be demoted to two-star rank.

....

Mr. Waxman said that General Kensinger’s lawyer told the committee he would not testify voluntarily, and that he would seek to avoid being served with a subpoena. He apparently succeeded.

Apparently, the buck stops with Gen. Kensinger. He does not seem particularly enthusiastic about falling on his sword for the maladministration.

Over all, Mr. Rumsfeld and the retired generals depicted themselves as busy men at the time of Corporal Tillman’s death who left the details of the investigation to subordinates.

When Mr. Waxman asked General Myers if he thought there might have been a cover-up “somewhere along the line,” the general said he had no way of knowing, although he emphasized that he himself had not engaged in one.

The Congressman then put the same question to Generals Abizaid and Brown — “yes or no on this question.”

Both general[s] said they thought there had been no cover-up. “I think people tried to do the right thing,” General Abizaid said, “and the right thing didn’t happen.”

"...and the right thing didn't happen." There's the oh-so-useful passive voice to defend the indefensible. It's not as though real people could have effected a different outcome. It just "didn't happen".

I'm tearing my hair out as I read and write this. I can hardly bear to finish. How can Rumsfeld, Myers, and Abizaid get away with these answers?

My admiration for Rep. Henry Waxman, who has been tireless in his attempts to shed light on the dark corners in the Bush maladministration, is boundless. He is one of my heroes.

There now, I'm done, and I'm about to blow.

God help us all!