A military note.

[gridlore]

I'm following a lot of discussion threads about the resignation of General McChrystal. One of the common complaints is that this somehow violates Gen. McChrystal's freedom of speech.

The military operates under a special set of laws called the Uniform Code of Military Justice. These laws are just like any regular law, passed by Congress as a package and signed by the President, but apply only to members of the US military and to military installations. The relevant code here is Article 88:

“Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”

There is a separate Article covering enlisted troops.

We live on discipline in the services. We require it. An army depends on mutual lines of respect up and down the chain of command, and that includes the civilian power structure. Especially the President in his role as Commander-in-Chief. We are also trained to be polite to officials, no matter what we think about them. That training served me well when Vice-President Bush shook my hand in Hawaii.

That Gen. McChrystal and his immediate staff were so contemptuous over multiple encounters with a reporter shows that McChrystal had fostered a climate of disrespect for the National Command Authority. That is unforgivable.

Comments

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

I've been following this with some interest. Either McChrystal and his staff are a bunch of careless, undisciplined, indiscreet blabbermouths, or this was calculated and deliberate, done in furtherance of somebody's agenda.

Whose and what might that be, I wonder...

[seawasp]

I would note that General McChrystal was born in an era such that his most formative years of political/social perception were in the middle to late 60s. In those who grew up earlier, respect for authority, especially governmental authority/the President was VASTLY stronger, to the point that following such rules would be second nature.

In the later generations, questioning authority became a much stronger value, as did speaking one's mind. I think that at least in part things like this stem from a significant shift in the basic political essence of the country, and the people who make up the military.