Mentaly abusing troops? You got to be kidding me!
Any troop feeling mentaly abused needs to get out and take care of little women... damn, there are people in this world alone as one-men-armies who are daily abused of the worst sort and do not back down and feel no guilt to God Himself.
My husband (then my fiancee) and I signed up for Tae Kwon Do classes. We expected our bodies to be pushed. We expected discipline. We expected a tough Black Belt to toss our butts to the mat and give us what for. Mind you, my husband is over 6 ft, weighing a rock solid 215, and can bench press over 200 lbs. easy. He's also held in own in some pretty dicey situations (thankfully, his wild days were behind him when we met).
Our teacher was all of these things, at first. Then one day, after class, as I was putting on my engagement ring, the teacher approached me and asked me if I wanted to go for a drink. This was surprising for several reasons, I thought my abiding love for my future husband was evident to everyone, I had never acted as anything but a student in his class, and I didn't think it was appropriate for any teacher to date a student.
I showed him my ring and he looked equally surprised that I was engaged, and to a fellow student. Very next class, he became abusive to my husband. Instead of giving a verbal correction on posture or positioning, he starting hitting him and kicking at his legs and knees. He became hypercritical of everything my husband did, even though he was doing it the same as - if not better than - most of the class. Some of the other ladies in the class even made comments to me about it in the dressing room.
After three classes of this nonsense, we quit. Simply put, unprofessional is unprofessional.
Folks in the military expect to take abuse, and I believe are prepared to swallow a fair amount of BS in the course of their career. But if this commander was crossing the line, to the point where others were questioning his ability to command professionally, it's better that he's removed from his post.