Fri, Jun 20, 2008 (2:08 a.m.)

When one hears the phrase “war crimes,” it is easy to flash back to the high-profile Nuremberg Trials of Nazi officers for atrocities committed during World War II. To think that such a phrase could ever be legitimately applied to modern American soldiers would have been difficult to fathom a few short years ago. But then came revelations about the infamous torture chamber known as the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where abuses that included abhorrent sexual humiliation at the hands of U.S. personnel were captured in photographs for all the world to see.

When this is coupled with evidence of torture and abuse of other detainees in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, it is easy to see why retired Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who led an investigation into the Iraqi prison misfortunes, accused the Bush administration on Wednesday of committing war crimes. Taguba declared that those who ordered the torture should “be held to account.”

The general’s conclusion, which came four years after he began investigating the Abu Ghraib incidents, almost appears to be too little, too late, considering the current administration’s tenure is coming to an end in seven months. It is beyond belief that for all the criminal behavior that occurred at Abu Ghraib, no one above the rank of staff sergeant was sent to prison for those acts. Sure, a few higher ups got demoted, including Army Reserve Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the prison’s commanding officer. But no generals, colonels or administration officials got locked up. Only those at the low end of the chain of command did. Those with the stomach to view the photographs can see them at the Century Suncoast 16 theater in the documentary “Standard Operating Procedure” by Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris.

As they have with other military missteps that have tarred this administration, President Bush and his cronies will certainly brush the latest criticisms aside. It is foolhardy to expect otherwise, given the administration’s history of admitting no wrong. The president is well on his way to crafting a legacy of denial.