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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (79422)	10/21/2004 6:18:51 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793996

THIS CANNOT BE THE END OF IT By Cori Dauber The Company commander of the platoon that refused orders in Iraq has been relieved, but the two little details that seem to be lost in the translation from wire report to broadcast (at least to NBC so far: we'll see how other outlets do over the rest of the day) are that this is at her request and that she is being given another assignment. story.news.yahoo.com Now, I am a bit skeptical that this is truly "voluntary," but I'm sure that she will be give another assignment (although I doubt it will be another company command, certainly not until all this is sorted out.) But for the commander to be relieved while the soldiers are merely returned to duty continues to feed the image that these soldiers are victims. That's a disaster internally for good order and discipline, even if they have a point, and an enormous disaster externally. ABC's Nightline went so far the other night as to pose the question: are they "mutineers or whistleblowers?" Excuse me, but they're soldiers. They have certain means available to them to speak truth to power; refusing legal orders ain't one of them, and there's already far too much discourse floating around that relies on infantilizing soldiers or representing them as victims rather than fully competent adults and protecters of the nation's security. It's in no one's interest for that to be perpetuated.