Don't hurt your knees jumping to conclusions there, David.

And having spent a significant portion of the time since World War II in the US Navy, I have a hard time seeing how there has been a recognizable "moral decline and a lack of discipline on the part of American Troops." Early in my career in the 70s, continuing a trend evident across America and among troops in Vietnam, drug use was rampant among military folks. The military bureaucracy being, well, a bureaucracy, it took several years to overcome inertia and take action, but by the 1980s, comprehensive and effective programs by the services put a major dent in drug use by service members.

I was shocked to hear about the Tailhook scandal in the early 90s, because that wasn't the type of conduct or attitudes that I observed among my fellow servicemen, and because I thought we had outgrown that type of stuff by then.

I think you're seeing what you want to see, and your post inaccurately and unfairly besmirches today's service members, all so you can get to your payoff phrase, "instead of focusing on the command structure that ignores such behavior and in some cases even advocates it."

Yes, the troops are mindless amoral idiots waiting to be told what to do and what to think by senior officers. They have no values when they join the military, they learn no values as they're trained by the military (or have them reinforced if they're already held...ooh, wait, they don't have any, that's right) and the services don't hold them accountable for violating values and ethics some of us hold near and dear, and even encourage misbehavior. Yeah, right.

You're a dear friend, David, but you are so wrong on so many fronts on this post, I just have to say you have no clue what the hell you're talking about here. And that's even putting aside the fact that, as a part of this poorly disciplined generation of military folks you describe, you're insulting my son.

You're wrong, David. Wrong, wrong, wrong. You have no facts. You have no evidence. You started with a conclusion and decided to twist a news story into a veritable pretzel to make your point. You're better than that.

You are right about one thing Boyd, and that is for sure. I did not mean to imply that this was a widespread problem. But... It is one that is getting publicity, and one that hurts our international image, and encourages attacks on our troops and the American People. As for your son, saw the picture of him on your blog, good looking kid, and knowing his daddy, he would probably be first in line to condemn and report such behavior.
My bad on painting with too broad a stroke... Thanks for correcting me on it.

There's no doubt that the chain-of-command must hold their troops accountable, but how does the article you quote represent anything but holding their troops accountable, David?

If the problems aren't pervasive, then how do they indicate a general decline in military discipline?

Where is there in this story anything but senior military leaders doing anything but holding troops to high standards of discipline?

The smart approach in military units is to train people to perform their duties, give them responsibility and hold them accountable. We'll always have bad apples, but their mere presence doesn't indicate a decline in discipline.

Even during my active duty career, I've always been one to pick out the shortcomings of military leaders when justified, but in this case, there's no there there.

There have been allegations of soldiers trading photos of dead Iraqis for access to porn web site. The Army is investigating. And you transform this into a generalize decline in military standards and discipline.

I still maintain you started with a conclusion and attempted to ram your square peg into a round hole, David. And when it starts to get too hard, pull out your hammer and just whale on that thang!

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