A word for the ones who got it right...

...but first, a little personal history.

About thirt(ahem) years ago, I was a witness in a court martial. It was no easy thing. The accused soldier was guilty, and though his crime didn't involve physical harm to anyone, it did involve the violation of a trust that hampered our unit's mission and general morale. He was found guilty, in no small part because of my testimony, and I witnessed him being led to the stockade in shackles.

It wasn't easy. The guy slept two bunks down from me for months. We shared who knows how many beers, laughs and barracks lies. He was a decent guy who, I'm sure, would never have committed a similar crime left to his own devices in his home town. Drafted into an alien culture (and military life is indeed an alien culture) and moved to a distant continent desocialized him in a way that resulted in a prison sentence, a Bad Conduct discharge and who knows what negative effect on the rest of his life.

It wasn't easy at all.

But it was necessary. It was the right thing to do. Not something to be proud of. Not something to be ashamed of. Just right.

It's also not something I've dwelt on much in the intervening years, but it was brought to mind by the Washington Post's reporting on the plight of Spec. Joseph Darby, the soldier who turned over the pictures of the torture at Al Ghraib to the authorities who finally took action to stop it.

Spec. Darby's actions had far greater impact than mine, and were, in some ways, immeasurably harder. The people on whom he blew the whistle were from his neighbors in the rural areas that the Army Reserve's 372nd MP Company draws its recruits from. Folks who know him, know them. The consequences of his actions have followed him home, and it hasn't been a particularly happy homecoming.

It's a shame.

I don't know if Spec. Darby takes pride in what he did. I know there's no shame in it. It was just right. And the response of some of his neighbors has been flat wrong.

As Kevin Drum writes, "...spare a thought for Spec. Joseph Darby. We need more men like him."

We do. And more like Master-at-Arms First Class William J. Kimbro, US Navy Dog Handler, who, according to the Taguba report, "knew his duties and refused to participate in improper interrogations despite significant pressure from the MI personnel at Abu Ghraib."

And more like 1LT David O. Sutton, 229th MP Company, who General Taguba says "...took immediate action and stopped an abuse, then reported the incident to the chain of command."

We need them, and they need us. What they did was hard. What they face now shouldn't be harder. While we condemn the bad guys, let's remember to commend the good guys.