Dummies

.
The U.S. military chief in Iraq Thursday ordered troops to undergo fresh training in legal, moral and ethical standards for the battlefield, in response to the alleged murder of civilians by Marines in Haditha.

This really gets me mad.

I was a Navy officer for many years, and I had command of a Navy ship. Whenever I read about these knee-jerk reactions, I start to steam. I’ve seen it done by junior officers all of the time – a CYA move – but senior officers, like Generals, are expected to know better.

And I think that they do.

I think I smell the stench of their civilian overlords – like Dandy Don Rumsfeld – forcing the Generals to "DO SOMETHING, GOL DARN IT!! HOLD SOME TRAINING."

Hey, Don, why don’t you hold some preventive training? All of these troops and officers have been trained and re-trained on battlefield ethics. See the article on CNN by a woman reporter who was stationed with these same Marines, about how they cared for Iraqi civilians at their own peril.

Why don’t you demand some training for the troops now in, say, prevention of diptheria, and how to save your life when the dam collapses? Then, when there is an epidemic of lilfe-threatening sore throats and runny noses next month under a crack in the Aswan dam, we won’t have to have another knee-jerk training exercise.

Doctor’s oath: Do no harm.
Defense Department oath: Do no thinking.