Panetta to scold troops at Benning
The Associated Press is reporting that Leon Panetta, the guy who spends $32,000 every weekend to be at his comfortable California home, is about to lecture the troops about self-discipline today at Fort Benning. In the wake of the media’s manufactured outrage about the “uriNation videos”, the LA Times’ “war trophy” photos, the burning of defiled Korans, and, oh, what else, Big Defense is wringing their hands, not about how to successfully win wars, but rather how to win the media;
Marine Gen. John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has expressed concern about the impact that those incidents have had on the war, according to a senior defense official. Allen believes that a number of major setbacks in the past six months have resulted from moral, not operational, failures, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal assessments.
Insurgents have used the incidents to incite violence and undermine U.S. efforts to win over the Afghan people, considered critical to counterterrorism operations. The incidents have reinforced the perception of Americans as unfriendly or occupying forces who do not understand the culture or the religion of the people they are supposed to protect.
Yeah, because the Taliban and al Qaeda were ready to surrender until they saw the UriNation video or the LA Times’ photo stream. They’ve been sitting around twiddling their thumbs wondering what they could be outraged about until US troops gave them a reason to fight us.
“Maybe we’ve gotten overconfident and maybe we’ve gotten a little bit comfortable in our young leaders,” Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday. “Realizing that they are young, they don’t have a lot of experiences. We have to continue to assist them so they understand what is expected of them.”
Or, maybe the incidents have been so rare that the “young leaders” have actually been doing their jobs. A total of nine people were found to have participated in these so-called scandals. Nine out of the eighty-nine thousand troops stationed in Afghanistan. So they’re going to scold the majority of the troops for what a very few did. That makes complete sense. Or something.
Apparently, the majority of “young leaders” know exactly what they’re doing. If Big Defense spent more time thinking and acting on a good strategy to win the war, winning the media would just happen naturally.
Category: Military issues, Terror War
Dead on target, Jonn. The junior leadership is doing a damned good job. Two or three incidents where an NCO or junior officer forgot to tell his troops, “Hey! Are you a f**king idiot? Put that damn camera away!” in 10+ years ain’t bad. And the Koran-burning incident was an honest error that was blown way out of proportion.
And, lest anyone reading this without reading the rest of the site jump to conclusions: no, the pissing, posing, and “SS runes” incidents shouldn’t have happened. But in a war zone, dark humor of all kinds happens, especially when folks have just been under fire. The real stupidity in each case wasn’t the behavior itself; that should have been quietly handled case-by-case by the chain-of-command. The real idiocy was photographing that for posterity. Abu Ghraib made that crystal clear to anyone with three or more working brain cells.
Bottom line: if it’s a photo you mother or pastor might find in bad taste or ask questions about – well, its probably best that you just don’t take it. ‘Cause these days, they’re likely to see it.
You couldn’t be more right. Once again, blame the troops for the failure of Civilian Leadership. It boggles the mind that (supposedly) intelligent people actually believe the crap they’re dishing out. They really think it’s beneficial to call ALL the troops on the carpet for the actions of a fraction of the people there. It makes me physically ill to think about it…
Context, as we have learned, means everything. So, how’s about we consider the context of these acts includes offending people who are looking for any excuse to be offended.
Are our troops perfect? No. (Shocking? Not to adults humans.) But neither is any other group of people on Earth. Our troops are at least attempting to act honorably.
Found out this jackass was showing up yesterday. So I’m about to leave the office for the day and avoid the dog and pony show.
Juxtapose this with the story of the Afghan girl going to US troops for help, and the real effect of the atrocities becomes clear.
This is the same sort of bullshit the Navy is having to put up with. Very soon, the oncoming duty sections are all going to have to blow into a breathalyzer to ensure no one is under the influence of alcohol prior to the duty day. Instead of letting the deckplate leadership deal with anyone who does not meet standards, this is being dictated by the SECNAV.
How can a guys who’s “never done it” tell troops how to “do it”? It makes me want to puke…typical desk jockey pieceofshit going out to tell the troops how they should do their jobs. whothefuck does he think he is?
If this wasn’t so pathetic, it would be funny. leon putznetta is going to chastise our troops for offending people who consider honor killings, stoning and incarcerating rape victims ok? People who are outraged when a lone, rogue soldier kills some civilians while their own countrymen slaughter innocents by the thousands. Yep, makes perfect sense.
I’m glad I served when all we had to worry about was ‘hair heads’ calling us baby killers.
Yat – what you said, in spades.
It is unfortunate that the actions of a few become a representation of the entire armed forces community. My LCPO once told me that you can do one hundred great things btu as soon as you do something wrong that is all that you will be remembered for. I hope the American public can see past these latest incidents and recognize the sacrifices and successes our troops have made.
I’m slightly dissapointed that there have not been more incidents…
Such as but not including, an incident where a serviceman….
shouting profanities about Muslims in between bites of a thick ham and bacon hoagie while urinating on a koran and enjoting hardcore internet porn on his international capable droid phone in front of a imax screen of a cartoon image of prophet Mo fisting his ass while wearing womens shoes…
Get me a KBR cook, any grunt, data platoon, few bottles of Johnny Walker + no consequences and you’ll have the above in a conveinient facebook video to “outrage” guilty white americans and the ENTIRE arab world in about 12 hours…
Idiots at the helm of this sinking ship…the brass needs to be polished out of the picture…
God I hate it when formerly good commanders and leaders reach that rarified atmosphere AND LOSE THEIR FUCKING MINDS!!!!. Its those junior leaders and NCOs that have shouldered this burden for over a decade. The media would have you believe this was the French Army in Algeria. IMHO the GOs and SES mouthing this crap have lost any sense of reality of not only the war, but how the Army runs. You’re fucking .ppt presentation didn’t get us to the objective sir, the soldiers making the right call on the ground when shit goes sidewise gets the job done. God I love the Army but you shouldn’t have to look down (and I don’t mean that in a denigrating way) to find real leadership. BE, KNOW, DO.
After those wonderful comments by senior leadership (mil & non-mil), I wonder what the retention rate is about now. . . .
Thank you. As an active duty Seven serving in Afghanistan, I am fully qualified to vet the credibility of this report. My company’s “young leaders” have led by example and embody everything that is right about America. The image of American Soldier should not be tarnished by the acts of a few stupid people. I am proud of the accomplishments of my men; it is my personal mission to promulgate their outstanding achievements.
VoiceFan4Life:
Thanks for the downrage feedback, amigo. Take care of your troops, and keep on doing the great job you (and they) are doing.
And please make damn sure they keep their cameras turned off and in their pockets until they get back to base.
Damn. Should be “downrange” above. Typo.
I got scolded a time or two at the “Benning School for Boys”… But it sure as hell wasn’t by a civilian leader.
I saw worse during rush weekend in 1985. And as to the ones who point the fingers in this instance: Physician, heal thyself.
I just like how as usual, senior leadership is trying to make it the problem of e-5 and e-6…you know the guys who have been fighting most of this war. There isn’t a “problem” there is a media perception problem. Hell didn’t the asshat from Rolling Stone just say that he was dissappointed that the media wasn’t doing enough to end the war. If the media was putting out stories about the atrocities that the Taliban has and does commit on a regular basis we would see support for the war swing back towards supporting the war. Now these few stories are just being put out as “what we are seeing”. Now that the SSG Bales story is dying down, they need to grasp on to new news. Unfortunately this is the world we live in I would love to be there to tell Panetta to lick my taint, but the best I can do is call my congresscritter to make sure that he knows that I am not happy about the administration’s treatment of soldiers. Which if you are a vet, civilian, or wanna be that is something you can do.