Have we gone insane?
A soldier pens an email to a mate criticizing the Army generally and his headquarters specifically and we are having a national debate. So far the Minister for Defence and a Lt Gen have made statements and hundreds of would be arm-chair generals have given us the benefit of the erudite and considered opinions.
At the Herald Sun every tenth comment says we shouldn’t be there and then there’s some who shouldn’t be allowed to have an opinion.
Houston, Chief of Army, who ever is in charge of “OUR TROOPS” plus the obvious incompetent Major all should be immediately removed.Houston is actually Chief of the Defence Force. Gen Gillespie is the Chief of the Army and he sure as hell won’t ‘be removed’ He’s doing a sterling job considering all the problems he has. As for the Major who the soldier accused of not doing his job properly, as if he would know, is accused, court martialed, found guilty and dismissed all on the basis of a disgruntled soldiers words. Every one has an answer. Bring ’em home – they shouldn’t be there, sack the Generals…sack the Majors…send abraham tanks…send Tiger attack choppers and sack the politicians. Here’s a new thought….remind the soldier about the chain of command, then sack him and get on with it. Defence will always be reviewing the situation and asking for more troops and equipment and the politicians will, as always, not give them everything they ask for. News.com say the soldiers email will be investigated and in due course, after a lot of questions the Minister for Defence will announce that all is well. One drop kick says “It’s Vietnam all over again” Well, yes in a sense, it is. It’s a war and you can never get too many tanks or attack choppers or artillery in a war. There will always be a priority and every patrol cant be guaranteed to have full support every time they clash with the enemy. Whereas I’m reluctant to give credence to one email from a Private soldier I do listen to Generals and Jim Moylan, ex General, has a lot to say on this subject. If you are really interested and look to forming a considered opinion you would do well to read anything he says. I have written about Moylan before so maybe you should also check that out so you can see I am really on the side of the soldiers. Just not ones who abuse the chain of command.
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we have had this one out before, and just recently……diggers on the ground see things differently from those people that sit in an air conditioned office and pass on dodgy info….I’m sure that in your digger days you also thought and experienced this Kev. The expert on what is happening is the digger on the ground not some officer that might disect the information after a full English breakfast either one day prior or two days after the contact….. A lot of diggers might remember going out on a routine patrol in the early days of Vietnam with very few supplies, rounds or backup..(thankfully I wasn’t there then)things were eventually turned around but this still did not prevent stuffups……whether or not this diggers email is completely kosher I am not that stupid that I will read Moylan’s or any officers report as if they are true facts……and I thought that you would know better Kev….
…diggers on the ground see things differently from those people that sit in an air conditioned office and pass on dodgy info
True, but all we have at the moment is one digger complaining to his mate. The Major may not be sitting in an air conditioned office and he may be doing the right thing.
The diggers says there was no mortar support but we don’t know what was going on in the rest of the area. Aussies do have mortars there but they may have been involved in another fire support mission that was more important than this one. We simply don’t know and we shouldn’t be having a public debate criticizing individuals when we don’t have the full story.
That is my point.
Moylan’s opinions backs up the digger actually and is on record as saying we should commit a balanced force to the area as am I.
Hi Kev
In a blatant attempt to promote my own blog, I have made a comment on this very subject today based on a Daily Telegraph report.
http://bloggercav.blogspot.com/2010/09/they-had-fire-support-but-it-wasnt-used.html
If you find the time to have a read I’d like to hear your thoughts.
Cav
Just another dumb grunt