This is the kind of CRAP you get when ignorant twits like Clintwit or ALLGOREY are put in charge of our country's Military:
War: Politics by other means necessary.
Subject: SOLDIERS HUNG OUT TO DRY
When the bosses screw up, somebody has to be hung out
to dry. There is
always a scapegoat.
This time there are two. Two officers whose careers
will be ruined and an
entire division which will get a black eye. All
because the bosses screwed
up with an insane peacekeeping philosophy and because
the nation's political
leadership is incapable of comprehending what an army
is for.
Here's what I'm talking about.
On Monday the chief of staff of the Army released a
report which talked
about supposed "excesses" committed by American
peacekeepers in Kosovo.
The secretary of defense, William Cohen, immediately
endorsed the report and
called for more training or some such nonsense.
It seems that members of the 82nd Airborne Division,
deployed in Kosovo,
acted like soldiers, and that has scandalized the
secretary of defense
and every flag officer who feels obligated to kiss his
fanny.
Specifically, the problem was the 3rd Battalion of the
504th Parachute
Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne. It is a unit
commanded in Kosovo
by a lieutenant colonel named Michael Ellerbe.
Colonel Ellerbe and his troopers were sent in to keep
the Albanians from
killing the Serbs. His orders were to "identify and
neutralize" the bad
guys. Now, in the language of Washington, "identify
and neutralize"
apparently means to find the killers and, while
displaying cultural and
a political sensitivity, offer them a fruit basket and
a pamphlet.
But Ellerbe doesn't live in Washington. He lives in
Fort Bragg, where
"identify and neutralize" usually involves blowing
things up and sending
various bad guys to meet Jesus.
Fortunately for the Albanians, Ellerbe's battalion
seems to have
accomplished most of its neutralizing via a stern
talking to.
Which is where John Serafini comes in. He was a
lieutenant with Alpha
Company of the 3rd Battalion. That means he's a young
fire eater just a
couple of years out of college and in command
of a platoon of paratroopers in a combat zone.
The secretary of defense wants him court-martialed.
His offense?
Well, brace yourself. He, an infantry officer,
allegedly "communicated a
threat."
Which, if you think about it, seems almost natural for
a guy packing an
M16A2. Some people think the entire purpose of an army
is to
"communicate a threat." Something along the lines of:
Don't screw with me or
you're going to have a very bad day.
Anyway, Lieutenant Serafini and his men had caught a
bad guy and they were
interrogating him. That's what soldiers do. And it
seems that this Albanian
guy didn't know that his role in this little drama was
to say, "Yes, sir"
over and over again.
Apparently GI Joe was asking this ragamuffin where his
killer pals were
and no answers were forthcoming.
So Serafini remembers that stuff he learned about
psychological warfare and
decides to try some of it.
So he raises an unloaded gun to the head of Mr.
Tightlip the Albanian and
says something to the effect that now would be a
really good time to start
talking.
And, whoda thunk it, the guy starts blabbing. And the
mission got
accomplished.
Score that a win.
Unless you're at the Pentagon and intent on castrating
Uncle Sam's Army.
If that's you, you see this as "excessive" and
"conduct unbecoming an
officer."
Which is really screwed, because such a culture of
military weakness would
have rejected virtually every successful combat leader
this nation has ever
had. Sadly, such a culture of military weakness is
assuring that America's
future combat leaders will be spineless sycophants
incapable of doing
anything but covering their backsides.
So Lieutenant Serafini and Colonel Ellerbe are left
twisting in the wind,
hung out to dry, two airborne soldiers wearing the
proudest patch in the
Army torpedoed by the brass for doing their jobs like
the warriors their
country asked them to be.
And there was one other thing that bothered the
milquetoasts back at HQ.
They made special reference to it in their report and
identified it as a
sign of what was wrong with the 3rd Battalion and,
indeed, all of the 82nd
Airborne.
It was the motto of Alpha Company: "Shoot 'em in the
face."
Apparently, that motto-which dates back to
D-Day-doesn't fit in today's
politically correct Army. The notion of shooting the
enemies of America
in the face is too gruesome and insensitive for the
lip-biter in chief.
Which is pretty weird, if you think about it, because,
if we can be honest,
isn't killing people kind of what we train soldiers to
do? I mean, the Army
is not a social welfare agency, it's not really just
some giant college
fund.
It's a unique bunch of people with a very unique job
using overwhelming
deadly force to assert and protect the interests of
the United States of
America.
These are people who must stand ready day in and day
out to administer
and face death on the orders of fat, impotent men in
Washington, D.C. It
takes a certain kind of mindset to do that.
And a motto like "Shoot 'em in the face" helps
establish and bolster
that mindset. Besides, it's not all cheerleading.
It's good soldiering.
When you're engaging an enemy wearing body armor and a
Kevlar helmet, isn't
a face shot a tactical necessity?
And shouldn't the chief of staff of the Army know
that?
And shouldn't America and its civilian leadership
realize that being a
soldier is a dirty business?
Don't the morons in Washington know that soldiers
aren't cops? Don't they
know that whacking these two officers like this will
kill the morale of
countless other troopers?
Don't they know that in recent years the pride has
gone out of the military,
stolen from it by spineless bureaucrats and the open
contempt of a
civilian leadership which actively avoided military
service itself?
I'm sorry this happened to Lieutenant Serafini and
Colonel Ellerbe, and I
hope somehow they can hear these words. Not just from
me, but from all
of America. And not just to them, but to all of their
comrades. "Well done.
We're proud of you, and grateful."
by Bob Lonsberry
Copyright 2000 |
