Whose Idea Was This?

By Adam Zagaorin

In a war effort marred by poor planning and misjudgments of the local scene, this move just about took the cake. Someone in the U.S. military thought it was a good idea to send Sergeant Santos Cardona, a dog handler convicted of abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, back to serve again in Iraq. What's more, his unit's job was to help train Iraqi police, a curious assignment for a military policeman caught in photographs distributed worldwide doing just the sort of thing peace officers should never do.

Cardona knew it was a terrible idea. Shortly before he left Fort Bragg, N.C., for the Middle East, he told a close friend and family members that he was returning against his wishes but felt dutybound to accept the deployment. The friend said Cardona described trying to attach another soldier's name tags to his uniform in hopes of concealing his identity from Iraqis but was told by a superior to desist. According to this friend, Cardona said he had told at least one of his superiors that he feared for his safety in Iraq. Cardona's name can be referenced almost instantly on the Internet, and his photo appears in at least one al-Qaeda propaganda video.

Still, it was not until TIME.com reported last week that Cardona was on his way to Iraq that the military reconsidered his posting. The morning after the story broke, the Pentagon said in a statement that Cardona's movement into Iraq from a staging area in Kuwait had been "stopped." Hours later, it said he would return to Fort Bragg immediately.

By reversing course, the Army stanched the p.r. damage, but some harm had already been done. On hearing the news that Cardona was in Kuwait awaiting transfer to Iraq, Maryam al-Rais, a member of the Iraqi parliament, lamented, "This is just the latest in a long list of insults to Iraqi dignity by the Americans." A Western official in Baghdad said he had received several angry calls from Iraqi political figures expressing "cold fury" at what they interpreted as American arrogance and insensitivity. The timing of Cardona's return could not have been worse. Anti-American sentiment is at an all-time high; opinion polls show that most Iraqis, regardless of sect or ethnicity, want the U.S. forces out. The Abu Ghraib scandal still resonates strongly among Iraqis. Those who resent the U.S. presence never tire of using it as a flogging horse. Even today, statements and videos issued by insurgent groups and jihadi organizations routinely cite Abu Ghraib as proof of the U.S.'s malign intentions in Iraq. Even America's allies in Iraq often bring up the scandal as proof of how little the U.S. understands the country. Many Iraqis will admit that their own security forces treat prisoners at least as badly, but they point out that their government doesn't lecture the world about human rights. The punishment meted out to Americans found guilty of atrocities at Abu Ghraib, Iraqis complain, was too lenient.

Cardona, who served as a dog handler at Abu Ghraib in 2003 and '04, was convicted this past May of dereliction of duty and aggravated assault, the equivalent of a felony in the U.S. civilian justice system. The prosecution demanded prison time, but a military judge instead imposed a fine and reduction in rank. Though Cardona was not put behind bars, he was required to serve 90 days of hard labor at Fort Bragg. He has since regained his rank of sergeant. Speaking to TIME while Cardona was in Kuwait, Army public affairs specialist Major James Crabtree, who is assigned to the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, which has responsibility for Cardona's unit, said his company "happens to be deployed to Iraq, so he went with them." Crabtree quoted the Army commander overseeing the transfer as saying, "There were no issues associated with [Cardona's new] deployment." Assigning Cardona to Iraq again, commented retired General Barry McCaffrey, who commanded a division in the first Gulf War, "represents appallingly bad judgment."

According to a close friend with whom Cardona spoke just before his departure, the soldier was worried that not only he but also comrades serving with him could become targets for insurgents. The Iraqi police, whom the company was assigned to train, have been the target of frequent assassination attempts and, according to U.S. intelligence, are heavily infiltrated by insurgents. The Pentagon's last statement about the sergeant's return to Fort Bragg said he would be assigned duties that would allow him "to be a productive member" of the Army.

With reporting by Bobby Ghosh/Baghdad