Four articles on the Marine urination issue follow. Would not be surprised if they and others like them trigger a round of navel contemplation within the DoD military Services that will result in command micromanagement (exacerbating coming end strength challenges), undermine concepts such as the Marine Corps' “Strategic Corporal,” and generate untold “programs” on professional military values under PAO-generated slick and trendy names. An excerpt from a fifth article, this one about Haditha, seems applicable here because I think the quoted Coast Guard officer has it right:
“… Relying on junior military personnel to make high-stakes decisions in remote foreign clashes can have grave consequences for U.S. foreign policy, said Capt. Glenn Sulmasy, a judge advocate and national security law professor at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New Haven, Conn. He pointed to the international outrage stirred by the images of U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. …”
In context, to “make high stakes decisions” can be roughly equated to “do the right think when no one is watching.” Within the Army, I think the response will be framed through ever-exacting adherence to the minutiae of peacetime garrison soldiering.
How the Marines video made the Afghan war even tougher
We’re all guilty of dehumanizing the enemy
Marine video: Desecration of the dead is as old as war itself
Phi Beta Iota: Culture matters–culture and commander's intent are all a Marine has when they are cut off from micro-management by pasty-faced staff pukes far in the rear. The strongest cultures are deeply rooted in historical consistency and have integrity as their centerpiece. The desecration of corpses on the battlefield is a direct consequence of the descecration of democracy by the two-party tyranny and the various complexes that a corrupt Congress has created in order to stay in power at public expense and without regard to the public interest.
