Thursday, June 01, 2006
Now it is "Core Values" training for Soldiers
From the same wonderful folks who gave us moral values. A sickening example of hypocrisy. It is the leaders who sent them there, not the soldiers out in combat zone who need to learn about core values. "The U.S. military investigation of how Marine commanders handled the reporting of events last November in the Iraqi town of Haditha, where troops allegedly killed 24 Iraqi civilians, will conclude that some officers gave false information to their superiors, who then failed to adequately scrutinize reports that should have caught their attention, an Army official said yesterday." "False information", duh ! Weren't we all fed a pack of lies to take us to war ?
- Even before the final report is delivered, Army Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, today ordered that all U.S. and allied troops in Iraq undergo new "core values" training in how to operate professionally and humanely. Not only will leaders discuss how to treat civilians under the rules of engagement, but small units also will be ordered to go through training scenarios to gauge their understanding of those rules.
- "In Baghdad, the U.S. military has announced that it will interrupt the killing to conduct across-the-board "core values" training. This is a hapless and hollow gesture.
- Haditha either represents an exceptional incident perpetrated by the rage of a platoon of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines and as such does not necessitate a sensitivity class for the American military at large or it represents a hidden side of Operation Iraqi Freedom, where civilian deaths are all too common and accountability on a day-to-day basis doesn't exist.
David Broder's op-ed piece The Seer and the Scandals covers the very unexpected developments in the second term of G.W. Bush. In less than a year a series of set backs, both domestic and in Iraq, brought the mighty, invincible (or so it seemed) Bush juggernaut to a screeching halt. "Even as Bush and his most loyal international partner, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, met to celebrate the (partial) formation of a permanent government in Iraq, a wave of violence swept across Baghdad, taking the lives of two members of a CBS News television crew, among others. And details began leaking out about an alleged massacre last November of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines who were said to be retaliating for the death of one of their buddies in one of the countless roadside bombings."
- This second-term swamp is a far cry from what most of the Washington Monthly experts predicted -- and from what I would have guessed had I indulged in a crystal-ball exercise. Grover Norquist, the conservative activist, said Bush and the Republicans would send the Democrats into permanent political exile. Paul Begala, a Democratic political consultant, said Bush would exact vengeance on his political enemies. Several people predicted that he would usher in a new era of good feelings, tackling global warming and avoiding divisive social issues. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Great but it remains to be seen what the Democrats can do with the opportunity that now exists to regain power. There are days when I don't feel too optimistic about their success.
