CSPAN2 recommended viewing today - starting now!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

10am
One Woman's Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story
Janis Karpinski

Former Brigadier General Janis Karpinski talks about her quarter century in the United States Army in "One Woman's Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story." Gen. Karpinski had a command of 3,400 soldiers who were in charge of the incarceration of Iraqi detainees and, after his capture, Saddam Hussein.

Janis Karpinski served in the United States Army for more than 25 years, "One Woman's Army" is her first book. Steven Strasser has worked as a foreign correspondent and editor of Newsweek and is now a journalism professor at Purchase College in New York.

Publisher: MIRAMAX BOOKS 77 W. 66th Street New York, NY 10023

11:30am
2005 Texas Book Festival: America in Iraq Panel

The Texas Book Festival presents a panel discussion on America's involvement in the war in Iraq. The panel includes two authors who have reported from Iraq -- George Packer, author of "The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq" and Michael Goldfarb, author of "Ahmad's War, Ahmad's Peace: Surviving Under Saddam, Dying in the New Iraq." The panel also includes two men who fought for the U.S. in Iraq -- John Crawford, author of "The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq" and Nathaniel Fick, author of "One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer." The panel is moderated by Jim Kunetka, author of "Oppenheimer: The Years of Risk."

Jim Kunetka is the author of "WarDay" and "Nature's End." George Packer has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since May 2003. Michael Goldfarb is currently a senior correspondent for "Inside Out," the radio documentary on NPR. John Crawford was a member of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division during the Baghdad invasion in 2003. Nathaniel Fick left the Marines as a captain in 2003 and is currently pursuing a masters degree in International Security at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and an MBA at the Harvard Business School.

[EFerrari]

1. I'm so glad Karpinski is not going away!

:kick:

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. she opened up with a wizbanger!

"never before have the MPs and Intelligence been combined until we went to war under this administration"

[EFerrari]

3. Yes! And is talking very directly about torture. Good for her! n/t

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. later, during the Q &A...

she comments about the 'seven bad apples on the night shift'. She says in one picture you can count 32 boots. That's 16 people involved. Why have we been told there were only 7? Why have the other 9 not been held responsible?

[EFerrari]

5. Exactly. Because the more soldiers involved, the higher

up the chain you have to look. And in this case, the harder you have to look at how and why that chain of command was disrupted.

These guys think they can get away with anything. As if they are exempt from the laws of time and space. It's breathtaking.

[WiseButAngrySara]

6. Thanks for the info! ....n/t

[EFerrari]

7. Karpinski said the Pentagon's response to the Abu Graib photos

was to the *fact* of the photos themselves, not to the behavior depicted.

She's right. Do you remember Rumskull testifying before the Senate, and with obvious frustration saying, "Digital cameras!" -- as if the cameras were the problem? It was on C-Span, and it's got to be in their archives.

What a disgusting human being he is.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. so much for 'all volunteer force'

when their missions are extended by 2 months or 6 months, and the guys feel like they are being held hostage.

Their families back home lose the benefits and pay when the first order expires.

moral plummets :(

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. America in Iraq Panel on now

I watched it last week, and I'll be getting "The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier's Account of the War in Iraq" and "One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer" for my son. He's at basic training in Georgia now, and will be deployed to Afganistan in April. I want him to know what he will be facing.