Six months after the repeal of the ban on homosexuals serving in the US military, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta claimed success:
“It’s not impacting on morale. It’s not impacting on unit cohesion. It is not impacting on readiness,” [Panetta] said.
Panetta was commenting on a report, though its Read more
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, concerned over instances of “misbehavior” that have shed negative light on the US military, issued a “personal plea” for US troops to “honor their military values:”
“These days, it takes only seconds — seconds — for a picture, a photo, to suddenly become an international headline,” Panetta said. “And those headlines can impact the mission that we’re engaged in, they can put your fellow service members at risk, they can hurt morale, they can damage our standing in the world, and they can cost lives.”
The sentiment was reportedly echoed by the top commander in Afghanistan:
Marine Gen. John Allen…believes that a number of major setbacks in the past six months have resulted from moral, Read more
Reuters reported last week that Afghanistan wants NATO to put the “Koran burners” on trial — and Afghanistan reportedly claimed NATO had agreed to a trial, though Reuters qualified the statement as not “immediately verified.”
“NATO officials, in response to a request for the trial and punishment of the perpetrators…promised this crime will brought to court as soon as possible,” Karzai’s office said in a statement.
While it is unlikely NATO actually made such a concession — NATO has already said the burning was “inadvertent” and there is no crime against burning Korans in the Western world — the confusion may be understandable. Even President Obama’s Read more
By now most of the world is probably aware of the accusation that four US Marines urinated on corpses in what is apparently Afghanistan. One of the group videotaped the event for posterity.
The event brought out a slew of condemnations from all sides:
The Commandant of Cadets at the US Air Force Academy, BrigGen Richard Clark, reportedly distributed a memorandum to all USAFA cadets on Wednesday. He included the memorandum from the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Norton Schwartz, as an attachment.
As predicted, Michael Weinstein claimed victory.
Of course, Weinstein is claiming “victory” about something over which he had neither control nor influence. In fact, his demands were completely ignored. To wit, Weinstein said:
MRFF has twice demanded that Gould so [sic] distribute this directive…to all Academy personnel, staff, cadets and government contractors…
For the record, an assessment: Read more
On September 15th, former US Marine Sergeant Dakota Meyer was presented the Medal of Honor for his actions in a pitched battle in Afghanistan.
There has been a frequently mentioned, though just as frequently passed over, detail to Meyer’s story (emphasis added):
Former Marine Corps Cpl. Dakota Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor…for disregarding orders in Afghanistan. [1]
President Obama…bestowed the nation’s highest military honor on Dakota Meyer, a young and humble Marine who defied orders… [2]
Defying orders, Meyer drove into a firestorm Read more
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