I have been following this story about the female soldiers who mud wrestled in Iraq. From all accounts, several women in an Military Police (MP) unit were involved in a mud wrestling contest as part of a going away celebration for soldiers who were leaving the country to return to the United States.
I have several issues with this whole thing. I am disgusted with the entire process from the event itself to the punishment handed out. Many on the left will use this incident as another way to bash the military they so despise. I feel that these soldiers handed their enemies, the left, a gift. The MSM, the democrats in Congress, and the liberals in the US will tell us that this was a terrible thing that happened because these young men and women were far away from home and they were fighting in a war they did not want blah, blah, blah.
Let’s get it straight right up front. These soldiers were acting this way because they lacked the personal discipline to behave like professional soldiers. They decided, instead, to act like abunch of college students at a frat party. These soldiers are not looked at as individuals when they misbehave. They are looked at as representatives of their service. They are ambassadors of their service and instead of representing it honorably they decided to bring disgrace upon it. Their actions reflect unfavorably upon them and the Army and they should certainly have been punished. Having said that, I think the punishment that I have heard about is too harsh. I saw on Fox that one of the soldiers has been discharged from the service after being reduced in rank. She might have gotten a dishonorable discharge as well. These soldiers were doing something wrong but the punishment was far above what they needed. These young ladies needed to be reduced in grade, given extra duty, possibly confined to the correctional custody facility for 30 days and then reassigned to other units away from the unit they disgraced.
That is what should have happened to these young troopers. Now let me give you this old First Sergeant’s opinion on the leadership, especially the NCO (noncommisioned officer “sergeant”) leadership. The sergeants who arranged this little party should be reduced in grade and dishonorably discharged from the service. They should receive a Court Martial and sent on their way. The first job of a leader is to accomplish his mission and the second is to look out for the welfare of his troops. These sergeants failed miserably in this endeavor. By setting this up and allowing it to happen they sent a clear message that the women in their unit were sex objects and could be placed on display for the enjoyment of the men. This will compromise their mission because the bond of trust on the leadership in that unit has been broken. The soldiers did not have their welfare well cared for. The sergeants who did this are beyond contempt and they failed to perform their duties in a professional manner. They arranged for their soldiers to disgrace themselves, their service, and their country. While one could make the argument that the soldiers were following orders that does not fly with this old Dog. They however, should not be severely punished while their leaders, the ones who sanctioned this, walk away from it unscathed.
This looks like the same scenario as the prison scandel at Abu Ghraib. The soldiers on the ground, the privates, are all going to jail while the officers above them are walking. The General in charge of that mess should have known what was going on and did not stop it. If she claims not to have known she should be drummed out for not knowing what is going on in the command. Instead they punish the privates and some of the sergeants while the officers walk. The claim is that the Specialist was the ring leader. Well let me tell you. I have a few years in the Army and no damned Specialist is a ring leader of anything. There are sergeants who are responsible for the soldiers and officers responsible for the unit and its actions. This is the same thing. The lower ranking folks are getting punished while the others walk.
Most of our service members are performing admirably and are bringing credit upon themselves and their country. A few jackass soldiers who can not get their collective heads out of their duffle bags are discrediting their units and dishonoring our country. The leaders are failing to exercise sound judgement and are not leading by example. Let’s hope that the MSM can see it this way and not show this stuff endlessly and that Congress does not use this to further show its hatred for the military as they did during the prison abuse fiasco.
To top it off these soldiers disgraced one of their own. The camp (Camp Bucca) is named after Fire Marshal Ronald Bucca, an Army reservist who was killed at the World Trade Center.
Camp Crazy Out Of Control.
Soldier Demoted for mud wrestling.