Some thoughts from around the web on this article..including a senior officer running the war.
I wish to begin by conveying our respectful appreciation of their service, and our hopes that their Staff Sergeant Murphy will recover quickly and fully from his injury. It will surprise no one that I am going to argue against some of the conclusions they offer, but I do not wish disagreement to be read as disrespect. Their service honors our nation, as does the fact that they feel they can provide a frank assessment of their observations to the public.
The piece they have published offers a despairing look at the situation in Baghdad, where elements of the 82nd have been operating for fifteen months. I do not intend to challenge their understanding of the facts on the ground, as they are based on direct observation. I assume the truth of every fact they report. What I wish to challenge is their conclusions about how events will, they seem to say "must," develop.
As far as I know, the military does not have a rule against undermining the war effort. As far as I know, soldiers are allowed to go on national/international TV or go to national/international newspapers and undermine the war effort by declaring that we are not up to the task and we should give up. If this were not true, then these NCOs would have already been arrested. As far as I know, they have not been, so apparently it is quite okay with the military for their members to undermine war efforts in which America is engaged. I believe they should be allowed to report the obstacles and the problems and the issues we face to achieve success. I do not believe they should be allowed to declare that the American military cannot achieve this task and suggest that we should leave. They are not in anywhere near a position to even have the judgement to make that call.
First, I don't ever think the message of "we can't win, we need to surrender" is acceptable. Once you get into a war, there is no surrender, there is only "find a way to succeed and win". I would have thought that was the mentality we were instilling in our military men and women. These NCOs tell me that it is not. They tell me that losing is acceptable to them. Surrender is acceptable. "I can't.." or rather "The American military can't.." is acceptable. If that is the mentality of the military then I don't know why I have bothered to support them all this time, when they are just going to give up. I cannot comprehend how the best military in the world is announcing to the world that we cannot defeat and enemy and are willing to accept defeat. That is just beyond my comprehension. It is also beyond my comprehension to hear you tell me that this kind of message should be relayed to the American people, because they have free speech and we should allow every griping G.I. a platform to talk to the American people, no matter the message they are sending.
Simply put, soldiers should express concerns, problems, issues and obstacles and their best analysis on how to solve them. But they should never express defeatism or fatalism to a worldwide audience. Amongst themselves, sure. With their superiors, sure. But keep it within the military. Modern warfare is as much propaganda and efforts to demoralize vs win over citizenry as it is military battles. The military needs to understand this. Either these NCOs did not understand this.. Or they did and knew exactly what they were doing and knew exactly what kind of effect they were going to have when going to the propaganda arm of the enemy, the Treason Times.
