Problems with the military

[greg334]

We were warned a long time ago when this country was formed that the military should stay neutral when it comes to politics of the country.
We have at times had some close calls with the line between the military leadership and politics and most of the time many in the military leadership kept out of the political arena until they retired, some became politicians themselves.

But I read where the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen visited GITMO and said “More than anything else it's been the image — how GITMO has become around the world, in terms of representing the United States.” and seems to think that we need to close down the prison and move the scum to US soil.

I say this guy needs to be removed and retired if he is concern with the image of the country and not the safety of the people he is charged with protecting. He was not elected, he is not part of the state department and speaking like this gives our enemy more empowerment to recruit more to kill us. It is not his job to be worried what the image of the US is but to worry about how to either kill people like we have in the prison at GITMO or find ways to find them to kill them before they kill one more American.

 

[arkjarhead]

You say that now Greg, but when all that stuff with Abu Grave was all over the news people were saying the opposite. That the military is represenitive of the US and they made the whole country look bad and shame on them. Plus their are some of the terrorist in our custody in the lower 48. Plus I'm sure we pay to lease that peice of land from Cuba. Just like we do the whole island of Okinawa that used to belong to us after WW2 until we gave it back and now lease it from Japan. Personally I don't see anything wrong with what he said. He is the highest military officer under the President and Gitmo is a military prison. Therefore I think he has the right to speak on the subject. I'm sure he has more info on the situation than you and I both do.

 

[greg334]

Re: Military Problems

You say that now Greg, but when all that stuff with Abu Grave was all over the news people were saying the opposite. That the military is represenitive of the US and they made the whole country look bad and shame on them. Plus their are some of the terrorist in our custody in the lower 48. Plus I'm sure we pay to lease that peice of land from Cuba. Just like we do the whole island of Okinawa that used to belong to us after WW2 until we gave it back and now lease it from Japan. Personally I don't see anything wrong with what he said. He is the highest military officer under the President and Gitmo is a military prison. Therefore I think he has the right to speak on the subject. I'm sure he has more info on the situation than you and I both do.

Ark,
I would normally agree with you but here is where I am coming from.

We are fighting a war of cultures and religions, not a war of people. We have to deal with more than one issue within our borders, the media who wants us to lose and the people who feel sorry about the people we are fighting. We as a country that accepts the criticism internally, we tend to worry about what some second rate country thinks about our actions to protect us and we tend to give latitude to our enemies, the ones who are fighting this cultural and religious war against.

When you have an understanding that our enemies look at our weaknesses which one is the internal criticism we have been dealing with, they use that against us to tell the people that they can win. From this, they kill more people and do more damage. What more of a tool for them is to have a high positioned leader say that some things are a mistake and some things should not have been done. This also has happened with congressional members who say what ever it takes to damage the reputation of the guy in that white house.

As someone who is in that high of position, strategy of the military should be his only concern, not any political concern and this is exactly what this is. He has pandered to the very people who criticized the country both internally and externally and like others in that high of a position, they need to stay away from politically charge issues and do their job. I won’t question his ‘right’ to say some things, but I do have the right over him to question his comments about something that is a decision of a political nature because that piece of paper we call the constitution allows the people to do so. I would think that it is not his decision to close anything but that is left up to the politicians who we elect and are appointed through the process we have.

I may be wrong but the last time I checked we were at war, which means that some should not talk about things in public and the media has this fascination that they have to right over all of us to know about everything. And if history is correct, I think we had a president that actually removed a general during a war for being a little too much open with things like publicly disagreeing with war policies (beside being very arrogant). Even though this is not a disagreement, there is something about it that is equally bad.

Okinawa, there is too much to that story to type here and not bore the h*ll out of people. We, meaning the US should have never allowed Macarthur (A general in the US military) to be in charge of the occupation of Japan after some of the allies complained he was not doing his duty as the head of the occupation. His running interference in the war crimes trial, not putting the emperor on trial, dismantling the monarchy and not allowing evidence about the Unit 731 experiments which not only took place on civilians but also American POWs – all damaged us in the long run and allowed the Japanese people to come up with an attitude that most of them have today; there was no loss for them, they were not wrong in fighting and they did not kill the 30 million or so people (which by the way is more than the Germans killed).

Abu Ghraib? Ark, I think that was a mess and there was a prison that worst things happened before we got control of it and may still happen after we let them have it back.

 

[arkjarhead]

Re: Military Problems

I know this is off subject but the island of Okinawa is a sore subject for me. Our men fought for that peice of land for a month. Many died. It's a very pretty place. I think after we beat the hell out of the Japs we should have kept it for ourselves or give it back to the Okinawians who it belonged to to begin with. Anyway it's late and I have school tomorrow from 0900-2130 so I need to get some shut eye.