Specifically I’m referring to various military cover-ups. Whether its pilots shooting civilians and laughing about it or murders ruled suicides even though all the evidence flies in the face of such a ruling. And the military just sits on its ass with its fingers in their ears.
This isn’t tin hat territory. This was a cover-up and the military flat-out refuses to cooperate. And it’s far from the only one.
And yet I’m supposed to applaud when an honor guard brings out flags? I’m supposed to applaud veterans returning from serving those institutions? Why? Why do people who volunteer to serve in those organizations, who help perpetuate the myth of ‘defendin ar fraedums’ get a pass?
The military is like a big family. It doesn’t like to send it’s own members to jail, even when they done wrong. The military justice system has a lot more things that are illegal under the UCMJ, but the actual penalties are very frequently much lighter than the civilian equivalent. Kill a few people? Might be 10-20 years. Leavenworth isn’t supposed to be the greatest place to be, but I’ve read accounts that it’s cleaner with less anal rape and prisoner on prisoner violence than a typical state prison.
I’ve also heard that the JAG attorneys who represent soldiers are much more skilled and work harder than civilian public defenders.
In the case of Private Johnson, well, it’s highly probable that there is not enough evidence to determine who did the crime. You don’t want to just pin the crime on a random soldier who might have done it and trick a jury into convicting them, something that civilian cops can easily do.
Unfortunately, in the US today (and not only here!) we have a domestic political culture that conflates peace with weakness. Also, many Americans are ignorant enough to think that the villain du jour is somehow capable of getting into landing craft and invading the US to take away everybody’s freedom. There are more sophisticated versions of this, involving situations like the Cuban Missile Crisis, but all too often they resemble super-villain plots. Plus, it wasn’t that long after the crisis that ICBMs became fully available, so if somebody wanted to somehow hold another country for ransom at missile-point, they would have done so long before now.
It’s true that Hawaii, Alaska, and Guam were all menaced (or even conquered) by the Japanese military in WW2, but the mainland hasn’t faced any conventional threats since the War of 1812. Hysterical Reaganites made noises about Central America, but US generals freely admitted that that was preposterous on several levels.
There’s a reason that the US had little standing military between wars, until the Cold War changed all that. The Founders saw standing militaries as threats to peace and freedom.
I can’t comment/speculate on any actual case, obviously, since I am not a subject matter expert on those in particular., and will try to keep my com meets to my own personal experiences.
People in the military are representative of society as a whole - sadly, there are criminals and deviants in uniform, same as in civvie-land. Does the testing and training weed some of them out? Of course, but some will still get through, a certain percentage may go on to never commit a crime, some will and hopefully get caught, charged and heavily penalized.
In my personal experience, the penalties for a crime committed in uniform were MUCH more severe than if the member had been charged civilian side, also there was a longer probation period. This has been similar for every courts martial or summary trial that I have been a part of for my job.
Based on what I have seen, there is a higher standard applied to those who wear a uniform, and there should be - I am honoured to serve in my country’s military and am deeply offended when a military member commits a terrible crime. I am very glad that it’s an extremely rare occurrence.
I guess what I would say is that if you choose to salute/show respect for/honour a flag or military member, it’s understood that you are not including the very small percentage that have committed an atrocity in uniform, instead the vast number that haven’t, if that makes sense? YMMV since I am not US Military.
I don’t disagree that covering up a crime is a terrible thing - I would just say make sure the blame falls where it should. I actually believe the best way to strengthen an institution is by casting light - especially on evil - Canadian example - Somalia scandal - Modern Public Affairs is not a perfect system, and there are still issues and questions that need to be answered and powers that be that still need to be convinced from time to time, but it’s definitely a great step.
Srill, the average soldier/veteran is not involved in any great conspiracy or cover-up, chances are they were just someone trying to serve the greater good, as they see it.
One thing to remember is that a lot of the behaviors and attitudes that engender cover-ups are also the same ones that are extremely useful in combat- stuff like extreme obedience and unquestioning loyalty to one’s fellow soldiers.
This makes the military a very hard place to avoid having cover-ups and the like; they want to encourage those behaviors and attitudes, but then expect them to just rat out their fellow soldiers / chain of command when something questionable happens? Not likely to happen.
The tough, macho “achieve the mission at all costs” type attitudes are similarly causing problems with respect to mental health treatment in the military. Shy of actual broken bones or bleeding (and even then sometimes), the miiltary members don’t want to be seen as not doing their jobs/not pulling their share of the load/letting down their comrades, so they don’t get treated. Or more perversely, those that do are seen as doing those things by some, because there doesn’t appear to be anything obviously wrong with them.
It’s not nearly as black and white as “Military people do horrible things and cover them up because they’re amoral assholes.” There are a lot of behaviors that they really do need in combat, and that are sometimes counterproductive at other times.
Military Justice has only a passing resemblance to civilian justice, and it’s inherent concepts.
Military Justice is more often than not focused on the big-picture “The Good of the Service.” Now, a very solid argument could be made that allowing rape-murder is contrary to the good of the service, and I’ll sign that petition.
But I’m just a 6-year active/2-year Reserve former enlisted.
To the point-of-view of the Officers that make up the Criminal Investigation Division and JAG Corps, the “Good of the Service” might be perceived as “sweep that shit under the rug, and never speak of it again.”
And, even if they don’t like it, if that’s what the Generals that run the military want, then that’s what they go along with.
I firmly blame the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld chicken-hawk war cabal. And I don’t see our current political leadership “grabbing the broom” and cleaning this shit up, either.
Young white men from the south? And from Maine, for some reason. I guess that is the real America.
As for the OP, it’s an interesting psychological issue on the left. They may be critical of the military, but they don’t want to be seen as unpatriotic. So of course everyone claps and hoots and hollers, even when a sporting event breaks out in the middle of a military commercial.
There’s also a belief that a lot of enlistees are minorities or come from disadvantaged backgrounds, or they were fooled by patriotic propaganda. There’s also a sensitivity with the whole “spitting on Vietnam vets” meme. Or ya know, they might actually have family or friends in the military.
But really, it’s just petty. Those on the bottom don’t have any real power. Maybe you have a problem with Walmart’s policies, but yelling at the cashier isn’t going to help.
