Is it just me or is the continuing clusterfuck in Iraq starting to look worse than Vietnam?
There haven't been many fragging incidents, but evidence to date indicates that the honor of the corps of officers has been degraded worse than in Vietnam.
For example from today's NYTimes a Colonel Steele is refusing to testify at an article 32 hearing for some of his men who are charged with murdering Iraqi captives. The soldiers in turn accuse the Colonel of ordering it (in general).
http://www.nytimes.com/...
In the past it was unheard-of for an officer to refuse to testify at an article 32 hearing (as noted in the article). But it's becoming increasingly common. As the following examples indicate. At Abu Ghraib Capt. Donald Reese, commander of the 372nd Military Police Company -- refused to testify http://www.usatoday.com/...
Major Gen. Geoffrey Miller ...refused to testify at the dog-handler trials,http://www.commongroundcommonsense.o...
Officers throwing their men to the wolves severs a bond of trust that will take years, more probably decades to rebuild. It also betrays a bond of trust that the officers had given to the American people, that came with their commissions. There is a duty to be honest, even at one's own expense. We've seen an outbreak of weasels.
At least as bad has been the example of blatant dishonesty by senior officers. Obvious lying point-blank to the American people and to their men. Lies so obvious my middle-school niece can spot them. In some cases all you need is to remember what they said yesterday " we are at war with Eurasia and have always been at war with Eurasia", but that wasn't what the Pentagon said yesterday. This kind of dishonesty isn't just corrosive to the trust of the public in our professional military, it's explosive within the military ranks.
Friends who've been through academy training have emphasized the utter rigor & insistence on perfect honesty no matter how embarassing. The reason: in action you trust each other with your lives & must trust that you will get an honest answer no matter how bad it makes the person look. Any thing else endangers everyone's lives. This is a common-place to anyone who has been career military. But now we see grotesquely dishonest men being rewarded with the highest ranks of the military. As a result a culture of dishonesty & intrigue is replacing one that attempted (even if it failed often) to be honest until it hurt.
The political game-playing by the brass is particularly sickening. Colin Powell's personal legacy. Compared to the great generals of WWII such as Eisenhower, Marshall & Abrams who stayed out of partisan politics (Yea I know about the ass-hole in the Pacific). It's time to return to the tradition that the military is strictly neutral. As in lips sealed. A substantial number of Pentagon favorites will have to be forcibly retired to return to that balance.
Even non-veterans like me know that military service is hard & depends on trust. History is full of examples of armies that collapsed from within because of corruption of the officer corps. Because the troops no longer trusted nor believed them.
After Bush & Rumsfeld get through with the Army & Marines we'll have to take the tattered remnants & purge the officer corps to remake them into what they were: proud & strong.