Bush has made us a nation of Shame.

Thank you for stating clearly what we all know. We need to hear it bannered in the WP, NYT, LATimes, Dallas Morning News, and featured even on news releases.

by pratliff94 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 940 comments) on Wednesday, June 20, 2007 at 11:08:49 AM
 

I read the Taguba story and started thinking

back to the robust beginning of a volunteer (professional) army. As disastrous as the Viet Nam war was, at least there was a benchmark for what is expected of a citizen soldier. So after the Church committee, we got our FISA and general acknowledgment of FBI and DOD overkill in the Intelligence Department. But what also transpired was the virtual cessation of the draft (officially not dead at this writing as far as I know). It was quixotic for Charlie Rangel to bring up the draft during the days when Falluja,et al, were playing out. However, he made his point. That the poor send their sons and daughters to battle. John Kerry's "joke" about acing exams or going to the Army was pungent because it pointed to the same demographics as Rangel's proposal.

So it is much less worrisome to me now, than it was in the 70's, that the military might become a uber-institution with political power. Touches of the thought came up during Wes Clark's short run for the presidency. Not very threatening, it appeared. In the current war, I think more of India during the days of the British Empire where the native fighters were used for real tasks and the British officers were the overseers.

Only in Iraq, the tables are turned. The American enlisted personnel are on slogging detail, although they have in fact been trained for much more, and the real beneficiaries, money wise, are truly outsourced from Halliburton and others at much higher rates of pay. To me it was a shock that to keep US enlistment steady it was necessary to give bonuses for reenlistment. I don't think that was the intention of Congress when they changed the law.

Obviously, accountability to the nation suffers. Financially, we have lost the ability to know where the money is coming from. The poor young enlistee is suckered in to a system where a little upfront money is dangled in front of his eyes and he is lucky for advancement. That, to me, lacks a mark of professionalism. Accountability to the civilian leadership of the nation is a very serious concern. The outsourced personnel is not obliged to honor respect for the political values of a nation which pays them.

Perhaps Taguba and others like him can benefit from bitter experience for the sake of the American system of military protection. Whether the answer is a frank discussion in the political realm, or whether there is a core in military colleges which can turn the corruption around--that is hard to answer.

by Margaret Bassett (19 articles, 1263 quicklinks, 26 diaries, 742 comments) on Wednesday, June 20, 2007 at 8:32:55 PM