5.16.2004
The Buck Stops Where?
The Army Times has offered an editorial that can be summed up in it's closing paragraph: This was not just a failure of leadership at the local command level. This was a failure that ran straight to the top. Accountability here is essential — even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war.
"The Gray Zone"by Seymour Hersh is an article that bolsters the viewpoint offered in the Army Times editorial- The leaders of our troops need to be held accountable for the happenings that occur under their watch- happenings enabled by their military policy decisions.
One high-level military strategist told me that Rumsfeld is "detested", and that "if there's a sentiment in the army it is: Support Our Troops, Impeach Rumsfeld
The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012"by Charles J. Dunlap, JR., written in the early 1990's,is said to be circulating among top military strategists
today- the paper bears reading and rumination.The paper,originally published in Parameters: US Army War College Quarterly speaks to our dissaffected times.Even true believers in our unelected President's ( and his neoconservative cabals)
illegal war are seeing the truth behind his prevarications. The policy difference between he and the Democratic rival for this years election are not as great as the majority of the politically astute would like- or the citizenry deserves. We are being prepared, it seems, for a "terrorist event" that may interfere with Constitutionally mandated elections.The quagmire that Mr Bush and company initiated will effect America both fiscally and politically through our childrens generations, sinking our nations budget while bearing down hard on even the best Presidents that follow the present miserable failure The above cited article speaks to all this, written over ten years ago it even speaks of the "just following orders" mentality that seeks to excuse the present regime's tacit tolerance of the inhuman and unAmerican actions at Abu Ghraib. The article is adapted from Mr Dunlap's National War College student paper that was co-winner of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 1991-92 Strategy Essay Competition.
"Richard Gabriel aptly observed in his book To Serve with Honor that
"when one discusses dissent, loyalty, and the limits of military obligations, the central problem is that the military represents a threat to civil order not because it will usurp authority, but because it does not speak out on critical policy decisions. The soldier fails to live up to his oath to serve the country if he does not speak out when he sees his civilian or military superiors executing policies he feels to be wrong"
Gabriel was wrong when he dismissed the military's potential to threaten civil order, but he was right when he described our responsibilities. The catastrophe that occurred on our watch took place because we failed to speak out against policies we knew were wrong. It's too late for me to do any more. But it's not for you".
Help lead folks to consider, to think,to discuss our present political reality. Share what you know.
5/16/2004
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