It is cowardice, not blindness, when you are afraid to look.

You don’t look, because if you looked, you’d see.  And if you see, you’ll know.

And you don’t want to know.  Because then you can deny that you knew.

And claim there is no way you could have known.

But it is your job to know.  To do otherwise is dereliction, or worse.

The tide of political correctness that has absolutely pervaded our senior military leadership in this nation is a (THE) direct cause of the tragedy at Fort Hood.  The recent news of the dishonorable and shameful actions by senior officers at the US Naval Academy regarding the Color Guard detail at the World Series (http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com. ) is merely a symptom of that disease.  The USNA incident was not simply the condoning of discrimination based on skin color, but discrimination against two white midshipmen being COMMAND DIRECTED.  Similar “diversity” efforts mandating equally unfair measures, have been done not just with the tacit concurrence of senior officers, but at the direction of those senior officers.

To those who do not believe that this rampant political correctness and lack of moral courage on the part of field-grade, general, and flag officers contributed to the Terrorist attack at Fort Hood this past Thursday, I offer an excerpt from a Ralph Peters column in yesterday’s New York Post:

“Given the myriad warning signs, it’s appalling that no action was taken against a man apparently known to praise suicide bombers and openly damn US policy. But no officer in his chain of command, either at Walter Reed Army Medical Center or at Ft. Hood, had the guts to take meaningful action against a dysfunctional soldier and an incompetent doctor.

Had Hasan been a Lutheran or a Methodist, he would’ve been gone with the simoon. But officers fear charges of discrimination when faced with misconduct among protected minorities.”

I have left out Mr. Peters’ comments regarding the somewhat disturbing non-reaction of our Commander in Chief.  Such will be debated elsewhere in forums more appropriate than this. Suffice to say a certain Cambridge Police Officer might be glad to hear that our President has of late become a fan of “finding out all the facts” before making public comment.

However, I would go much farther than Ralph Peters regarding the Army’s cowardice.

Article 94 of the UCMJ is the punitive article covering Mutiny and Sedition.

Article 94 states, in part:

(a) “Any person subject to this chapter who–

…fails to do his utmost to prevent and suppress a mutiny or sedition being committed in his presence, or fails to take all reasonable means to inform his superior commissioned officer or commanding officer of a mutiny or sedition which he knows or has reason to believe is taking place, is guilty of a failure to suppress or report a mutiny or sedition.

Among the elements of the offense one finds this:

(5) Failure to report a mutiny or sedition.

(a) That an offense of mutiny or sedition occurred;(b) That the accused knew or had reason to believe that the offense was taking place; and

(c) That the accused failed to take all reasonable means to inform the accused’s superior commissioned officer or commander of the offense.

Major Hasan’s chain of command should be charged under Article 94.  Not only did they certainly know of Major Hasan’s pronouncements and internet postings and hadn’t the courage to discipline him, but they allowed this man who had sworn himself an enemy of this nation and its Constitution to be promoted to his current rank.

I took the opportunity to re-read LtCol Heinl’s classic essay on Special Trust and Confidence, and noted the part about no tolerance for an officer lacking integrity.  Those in Major Hasan’s chain of command at Walter Reed Hospital, and perhaps at Fort Hood, should face a General Court Martial.  The Chief of Staff of the US Army should feel the heat good and hot.  The command climate that creates such cowardice and political correctness needs to be dissolved immediately.

But the problem is endemic to much of our senior leadership, who have time and again sold their souls to comply with what they must have known to be wrong and unjust.  The current climate of social experimentation and sacrifice of all on the altar of “diversity” have made matters far worse.

There are those who claim that such bald-faced bigotry in our Armed Forces, such feel-good politicising and social engineering, such style over substance have made us stronger.

They’re lying.  And they know they’re lying.

As Mr. Peters states, “The chain of command protected a budding terrorist who was waving one red flag after another. Because it was safer for careers than doing something about him.”

What is the logical conclusion of allowing those careers to continue?

Such shameful bankruptcy of moral courage could be found on the faces of those in the gray uniforms sitting in the dock at Nuremberg.   They sat as examples for all the world to see, examples of how otherwise honorable men became criminal accomplices because they did not have the courage to stand up to what they knew to be wrong.    They are examples still, should one have the courage to look.

It is cowardice, not blindness, when you are afraid to look.

You don’t look, because if you looked, you’d see.  And if you see, you’ll know.

And you don’t want to know.  Because then you can deny that you knew.

And claim there is no way you could have known.

But it is your job to know.  To do otherwise is dereliction, or worse.

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Posted by UltimaRatioReg in Army, Navy, Uncategorized

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• UltimaRatioReg

  Perhaps most telling from the article above:

  “Finnell recalled Hasan telling his classmates and professors, ‘I’m a Muslim first and I hold the Shariah, the Islamic Law, before the United States Constitution.’”

• Southern Air Pirate

  I am going to make a minor bow toward diversity with regards to this debate. Having grown up being taught my own family history going back to relatives that left Bismarck’s Prussian Wars only to get involved in the War Between the States and later wars in this nations history. At various times I was taught it was wrong to paint with a broad brush ethnic types. In my father’s home town in Illinois a German man was lynched in some WW1 Anti-Germanic hysteria. Cause of that members of my family changed their Christian name from a distinct German name to a more anglicized Anglo-Saxony name as a way to hide from the hatred. Numerous other Germans in the town did the same. My maternal grandfather was denied entry into a couple of special programs in the Navy because a relative had contributed some money to the German-American Bund prior to WW2, the only reason was that the relative had donated was the support of family that still lived in Germany. It was until later that the family found out the truth behind the Bund. The FBI ruled my grandfather a security risk, so he spent the war from 1943 to 1946 as an AMM at NAS Corpus Christi working on N2S’s.
  I am also going to say that in numerous places through out the nation during the early part of the 20th Century to do anything in politics or even be considered a upstanding member of some communities, people had joined the Klan. So guilty by association to certain groups doesn’t always mean they are guilty of the same crimes.

  That being said when my great grandparents came to this country they made it their effort to assimilate themselves into the community. My grandfather and great uncle both remember that my great grandfather was an active member of the auxiliary fire squad and made sure that even though German was spoken from time to time in the house that everyone family learned English. Everyone in the family was active in some fraternal organization such as the Rotary, Lions, Knights of Columbus, Legion, etc. Basically they made their identity that of being an American.
  If there are people who can’t separate that aspects of their culture is wrong here in the United States of America then they need to change, not the nation. If there are those whose religion dictates the word of God is higher then the community standard, then they need to take a critical look at the word and the teacher of that word. Those who cover their eyes to atrocities and don’t believe that when someone speaks evil actually has evil in their heart because of fear from backlash, need to grow a backbone; leadership is doing what is right not politically expedient or correct.

• Byron

  And now you officers have heard from the mess decks. Read and heed, you flags, the young man speaks the absolute truth.

• Russ

  I remember my oath. I vowed that I would “Bear true faith and allegiance to the (Constitution)”

  I am a common Sailor, and I am really not fluent with the UCMN specifics, but it seems to me that the Officers in HIS chain of command failed. I don’t know specifically WHERE, WHY or HOW they failed, but the evidence of their failure is painfully obvious.

  So yes, no matter where their failure was, I believe they are culpable for their actions. They knew SOMETHING and they didn’t intervene. We teach Enlisted leaders something called “Intrusive Leadership.” Somebody should have intruded into this dudes business.

  I believe that the Senior Leadership failed to bear true faith to defend against all enemies and they also failed to keep faith with the sons and daughters of this nation. They deserve better. They did not deserve to be sacrificed on the alter of diversity, or ennui, or whatEVER the hell fogged their eyes.

  This, of course, is not a new failure on the part of our Senior Leadership.

• Russ

  Of course by UCMN I mean UCMJ

• Grandpa Bluewater

  URR:

  We don’t part very far on this one. Almost certainly jihadi. Still, probability of .0001 means there is a possibility, albeit microscopic.

  The problem is that when somebody is a jihadi due to incurable insanity or religious fervor, how do you tell which? After a certain point, it doesn’t matter, just do your duty.

  My point was weeding out, properly done, may wind up the biggest favor you ever did the individual who was plucked. Once again, duty, while painful at times, is the best course in the long run.

  My original recommendation stands: try for treason, upon conviction after fair trial, execute.

• Grandpa Bluewater

  Russ:

  Big 10-4.

• Fouled Anchor

  Interesting national poll on whether political corectness caused the tragedy at Ft. Hood. Summary of the results available here:
  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/20/fox-news-poll-mixed-views-calling-ft-hood-shooting-act-terrorism/

  “Americans think the main reason these people kept silent was political correctness: 46 percent think Hasan’s co-workers did nothing, even though they thought something was wrong, because they feared being accused of prejudice against his religion. Some 38 percent say people kept silent because they didn’t think he was that dangerous (38 percent).”

  Full report available here: http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/112009_FortHoodPoll.pdf

• http://yedemin.com/story.php?title=iphone-4-news Doloris Berdar

  I understand that but where does it take us?
  What’s the speed of dark?

• UltimaRatioReg

  Doloris,

  It takes us to where more and more light is shed on the discriminatory and likely illegal practices of the “diversity bullies” who are pushing a social/political agenda instead of leading their respective armed forces, and ensuring they are ready for war.

  It leaves us with bald-faced politicians instead of Generals (Casey) and Admirals (Roughead) in charge of the Army and the Navy, respectively, when neither of them should be allowed to remain in the uniforms they have disgraced.

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