Many of these bad eggs have 'scrambled eggs,' indicating command rank, on the visors of their caps. It's always those enlisted personnel with the lowest possible rank who take the fall, however. Remember the Abu Ghraib debacle? Eleven soldiers were convicted in courts martial, sentenced to military prison, and dishonorably discharged from service. Meanwhile, the commanding officer of all Iraq detention facilities, Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, was reprimanded for dereliction of duty and then demoted to the rank of Colonel. In between, Colonel Thomas Pappas was relieved of his command after receiving non-judicial punishment, which amounted to an $8000 fine and an official reprimand, and Lieutenant Colonel Steven L. Jordan was acquitted of all charges related to prisoner mistreatment, receiving only an official reprimand for daring to discuss the investigation of the whole sordid affair.

I could go on ad infinitum with examples where the lowest-ranking enlisted grunts bear the brunt of punishment, while the flag officers, with actual responsibility create the environment where atrocities flourish, suffer nothing more than a slap on the wrist. As punishments go, fines, reprimands, and loss of advancement opportunities come nowhere near the lifelong stigma foisted upon the lowest links whenever a chain of atrocity is actually uncovered.

while the little guys take the fall.

In every vital institution, our system is corrupt through & through.

Those who long for the 'good old days' cannot find a single instance in this nation's history that wasn't riddled with corruption at all levels, although the New Deal era and its immediate aftermath came closest IMO. Hardly surprising, then, that conservatroids have made rollback of any & all gains made during that time their life's work.