Sailor Acquitted in Detainee Abuse Case

As the Florida Times Union reports, here, and Navy TImes report, here, the last Navy sailor accused of wrongdoing in the Camp Bucca detainee abuse incident was acquitted yesterday of all charges. Machinist Mate Second Class Jonathan Armstrong was acquitted of charges that he and another Petty Officer, according to the report, "pushed the [detainee] to the ground and then punched and kicked him while [Chief Petty Officer] Necaise held him down." According to the FTU, "Armstrong defended himself by saying that in beating the man he was obeying the order given by Necaise, the guard duty officer in the area where the sailors worked."

Here is the thing about this case that disturbs me a little bit, MM2 Armstrong was assigned to Naval Shipyard Norfolk Submarine Repair Complement and was an individual augmentee to the Camp Bucca prison force. Essentially that means that Armstrong was not a prison guard or security officer by training and that he either volunteered or was volunteered to take over the duty of guarding detainees at one of the largest US military detention facilities in Iraq for 9-18 months. I am not excusing any one's conduct in any of these incidents, but Armstrong's presence at Camp Bucca was akin to the U.S. BOP walking down to the local auto repair center and asking for volunteers to go to Leavenworth, Kansas because there was a shortage of prison guards at SuperMax. While I am sure plenty of commenters will disagree with portions of that analogy (which I am leaving in because I like commentariat &*%$ storms), is it really surprising that MM2 Armstrong didn't know what to do or how to react when a detainee spit on him?