A damning observation, and a pretty good encapsulation of the outcome of “arrant indifference” to the spirit of democracy at the top:
“The crimes in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere are not comparable to My Lai in Vietnam or other atrocities committed in the heat of battle by terrified GIs and inadequate officers. They were born of that arrant indifference to laws, regulations, rights and rules that has characterized this administration from the outset, and that was bound, sooner or later, to percolate down to the sergeants and mercenaries who do the dirty work.”