On its face, this makes sense. Why throw away 2 or 3 years training invested in a cadet, just because he screws up once. But it can also encourage mediocrity. An example was cited in LTC Heffington's letter - if a cadet was doing poorly in class, he may just choose to fail it altogether. This allowed him to re-take the class (with little risk of getting kicked out of the academy). And to top it off, the summer academic term now counts as a summer training period - this means going to summer school no longer consumes all of your precious summer leave; and, a cadet may actually get more leave if he goes to summer school instead of Airborne School. In the 'old days', if you were lucky enough to not get kicked out after failing a class, your leave was mostly forfeited in lieu of summer term academics.
IMHO, the superintendent's letter merely gives a one liner to this major philosophical change. Sometimes zero tolerance can be a great motivator, and should not be dismissed without discussion. Unless LTC Heffington just made things up out of thin air, there is a 'climate' problem...Heffington probably shouldn't have accused the Superintendent of being a liar, because now this could devolve into an unproductive finger pointing rally. But clearly something is wrong - in light of the recent commie cadet episode, perhaps an investigative commission is in order.
Yes, 0 had eight years of effect.
The rest is just a long letter with no mention of whatshisname or his muslim mentor. No big deal to this guy.