Posted on 10/25/2007 9:17:47 AM PDT by Tennessean4Bush
The story of General Petraeus getting accidentally shot in the chest is a case in point. One of his own soldiers had pulled the trigger. Normally, something very bad would have happened to that soldier and his commander. Instead Petraeus sent that soldier to Ranger School, and his Captain (Fred Johnson) was promoted early. In June, I witnessed LTC Fred Johnson helping to restore security and rebuild Baqubah. Fred Johnson is a believer in second chances.
Some months ago, a soldier in Baghdad wrote a piece on the way war can degrade the morals and affect the judgment of combat soldiers. His story was published at face-value in The New Republic magazine. In it the soldier wrote terrible things about his unit, making the article sensational.
I was in Iraq when it first hit the stands and someone asked me about the plausibility of the events described in the article. I skimmed the story but it did not even pass a simple sniff-test. With a shooting war going on, there is no time for trivial pursuits, so my only comment was something like, “It sounds like a bunch of garbage.” Turned out it was.
The soldier’s name was Beauchamp. He’d tried to hide his identity, but poor Beauchamp had no idea that the blog world would get on his trail and tree him like a coon. Beauchamp crawled up to the top of that tree, looked down into the snarling spotlight, and suddenly knew he was caught. His simple mask was no more effective than a coon’s, and that in itself might provide a little insight into how deeply Beauchamp had thought this all through. In any case, he was up in that tree, surrounded by hounds who’d done this plenty of times, yet always found this...
(Excerpt) Read more at michaelyon-online.com ...
The "Who are you talking to?" comment was an invitation to re-read my posts. I was commenting on the assertion made by Yon and some of the posters here that he is paying his dues. I said nothing about his commanders or their decisions.
Thanks Tennessean4Bush.
Ok, I re-read your posts. In post #25 you said..
“He can’t pay for his mistakes by being a soldier and doing what his comrades have always been doing in theater. This would be akin to me screwing up on the job and saying to my boss. “OK, I’m sorry, please allow me to make my restitution by returning to my job and doing it right!”
Actually, a *good* boss *will* allow you to try and make things right. If you have a boss that thinks otherwise, you work in a place where no mistakes are ever made. That doesn’t describe anywhere I ever worked.
That being said, I do agree that some mistakes are firing offenses. In any situation, I hope that it’s my boss gets to decide, and not someone 10,000 miles away, basing the decision on media reports.
Are you sure you are commenting to my posts? I say this with all due respect but it looks like you are seeing things that are not there. Who said anything about the boss’ actions???
I originally commented on Yon’s claims that the soldier is making amends, not on what is, or is not, an appropriate punishment for him. The fragment you quoted was an alegory about an employee asking for his punishment to be a return to normalcy, nothing to do with the boss or his actions, the commander, the commander in chief, the Vietnam War, advice to the military or anything else even remotely similar!!! ;-)
If you were commenting on Yon’s claims, it was in a curious manner. You replied to my post quoting my comments instead of Yon’s.
The ‘fragment’ I quoted was your entire post, save for the quote of my earlier post. If that indeed constitutes a fragment, I’m guilty.
It’s true I may be reading things you don’t mean into what you wrote. It’s up to both of us to be clear. The fact that we seem to be talking past each other seems to indicate we’ve failed.
Doesn’t change the fact that the guy is still out there risking life and limb so we can have our little exchanges.
ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.