Sergeant Bergdahl is a Traitor because 'he read too much and didn’t drink enough beer'

[Lee-Lee]

69. I think you are badly misjudging this

Further, anyone complaining had better be in top physical condition, not a roll of flab on 'em, with excellent PT scores, perfect military bearing, good at their job, never getting into trouble off duty, and never, ever, not once late for work.

Do you see where I'm going, here?

I see what you are saying- they had best put up, shut up, toe the party line and never complain or we will torpedo their career. That is a pretty disgusting attitude.

I also know that isn't reality, or how it works. Maybe at the O6 and up level, but not down in the real Army. Nor is it how we run our military stifling dissent. If the dissent rises to the level for UCMJ action, take action. If it doesn't rise to that level, than it is still protect freedom of speech. Torpedoing careers for having contrary opinions on how discipline is handled or any other gripe isn't how things are done- nor should it be. Soldiers, including leaders, griping among themselves about decisions of leadership has been going on since the first army was created. We gripe about crazy uniform policy, we gripe about changes in tatoo regs, we gripe about changes in what discipline is considered acceptable and what is not, we gripe about overreaction to whatever the hot topic of the day is. If he gets a slap on the wrist, it won't be ignored.

My rater is an E8, senior rater and O3, reviewer an O4. I have drill this weekend so I will get a much better idea of their views, but I have been with them long enough to know it won't be "put up and shut up", not will it be favorable to him getting any kind of slap on the wrist. In fact I will be willing to bet if I stood up and used every colorful metaphor I can think of to describe him I would probably just get coffee cups raised in a toast. Think they would go along with what you describe?

A slap on the wrist will be seen by NCO's and Officers, at least in the army, as a slap in the face for their efforts to maintain discipline and standards. It will be seen as all Soldiers as a slap in the face to all Soldiers who have strived and worked hard to do their duty in an honorable fashion. At a time when everybody has seen much harsher punishments played out for those who did far less harm than Berghdal caused, a high profile case like this with a little or no punishment will send the exact wrong message across the force about discipline, duty, responsibility and the fact that we hold those who fail accountable. That is the view I am seeing in the NCO corps right now- glad he is back, that doesn't excuse him from being held accountable for essentially derailing the entire mission in the whole country for months to look for him and putting many, many more at risk.

And you won't get everybody to just shut up, and you certainly won't any support for torpedoing the careers of people who disagree as you disgustingly suggest- especially since the majority of the officer corps, at least in the army, leans heavily conservative. And the fact that conservatives are way over represented in the officer corps is exactly why I find your implications so disgusting- if you advocate they actually do that in this case it sets a precedent that it is acceptable to screw with somebodies evals because they speak political opinions you don't like- and that is scary. I know as a liberal I have been a minority in almost every unit I was in, but I have always been confident that my leaders would treat me fairly and give me accurate and fair evaluations based only on my job performance, not on my personal beliefs or opinions. I don't want to see that change for the next generation.