Woman Demoted for Iraq Mud-Wrestling Party
Out of control at Camp Crazy! Female soldiers dress down & get dirty for mud romps
Army red-faced over new prison antics: Startling pictures of wild Iraq party
Let’s see; we send young men and women halfway around the world into combat in a Third World hellhole, and then we profess surprise when these same young men and women decide to blow off some steam?
Don’t get me wrong; I’m certainly not about to condone this sort of behavior. Nonetheless, given the brutal, miserable environment these soldiers operate in, it’s understandable why the need to blow off steam would exist. Could this have been handled more appropriately? Without a doubt, but let’s not go overboard here. In many ways, this is no more or less harmless than your average college frat party. Of course, most frat boys don’t have to worry about improvised explosive devices along roadways or going into combat against an often-invisible enemy.
There can be little doubt that this sort of behavior is not acceptable from those Americans who represents us in foreign lands. Does this rise to the level of the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib? Not by a long shot. No one was harmed or mistreated, though a few folks likely woke up with hangovers and mud caked in unusual places. Once the hangovers wore off, I imagine there was probably more than enough embarrassment to go around.
Does this sorry episode represent anything more than a colossal breakdown in military discipline? Not from where I sit. While I cannot condone this sort of behavior from our men and women in uniform, who was really harmed? This is the sort of thing that should rightfully be handled by the chain of command. Let’s not make more of this incident han it really warrants. How many of us, given half a chance, wouldn’t have engaged in the same sort of behavior in college?
How about we let the chain of command deal with the matter and be done with it? Moralizing is not going to accomplish anything of any value. Let’s hope that some of the soldiers involved in this episode at least learned a few lessons.
