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I seriously doubt Mr. Bookman ever served a day in uniform; thus his opinions have little value. He does not understand the importance of leadership, its impact upon unit morale and how the two elements together form an aspect of combat power.

You can have the best trained army in the world, with the most technologically advanced equipment. We do. In the hands of unmotivated soldiers who are poorly led, these advantages mean absolutely nothing. So then you have a professional officer corps, skilled in the art of war, leading a well equipped army, whose subordinates do not trust such leaders with their lives and will not or cannot obey orders. You then have chaos and inevitable failure.

This is the risk of going forward with the court martial. MG Odierno has shown that following the letter of the law (going to an art.32 hearing) is more important than the morale of soldiers. What soldier is going to want to fight for his chain of command, when that same chain of command punishes, far beyond any appropriate measure, commanders who try to protect them from the enemy?

The court martial of LTC West is unprecedented. I've been around the army since 1976 and cannot think of a single court martial more destructive to morale than this one. I grant you LTC West should be punished; only because no wrong deed should ever be tolerated. But that punishment should have been a verbal reprimand with the admonition not to do such actions in the future.

The more this is on the front page, the more the army loses. Going the court martial route destroys morale and any confidence soldiers might have in their leaders. JAG types (army lawyers) don't think about this; its not their job. But commanders at all level realize the implications that any punishment West gets will be viewed as a sop to political correctness.

The commanding general of the 4th Infanty Division has shown incredibly poor leadership by ever allowing this 'charge' to see the light of day. This is what happens when you have careerists and lawyers running a war, instead of soldiers and warriors. He should know better better than to give the impression that he doesn't give a damn about his soldiers; which is the result of his extremely poor judgement in this case. Who would want to be a soldier in the 4th ID these days? MG Odierno, CG of the 4th ID, should be relieved of command, and LTC West reinstated.

Thank you for your insight.
We are here debating the new army. It is scary, to listen to the rulebound morons who view war as simply a vague future alternative to welfare.
Idiots who have no business there, and alongside whom I would never want to risk my life.
Losers who, in the civilian world, have no friends and feel rejected and picked on for reasons they don't have the intellect to comprehend.

Yes yes yes! Yell at him from the top of your lungs, write him the nastiest letter he's ever received, make him kiss a picture of Hillary tens times, make him kiss a Janet Reno doll, but don't destroy our solders moral.

The only reason these charges saw the light of day is because LTC West didn't want to take the punishment offered him and quietly leave. He and his lawyer have made people aware of this, meanwhile the US Army and commander 4th ID have been conducting themselves honorably, while allowing the justice system to do it's job.