The (D)Evolution of Military Leadership

If Liberals can support the troops, but not support the war—a contradiction of sentiments so obvious and alarming that it warrants no intelligent discourse from news analysts(that is the reason, right?)—then I feel as though I can espouse the other extreme. While I support the war, I do not support the leadership of the troops. The only place where the average Liberal and I may agree on Iraq is on the campaign’s mismanagement. Whereas our troops should have made every day a Day of Shock and Awe since entering the Iraqi theatre in March of 2003, they’ve been handcuffed by the politically correct military policies dictated by Donald Rumsfeld and the Bush administration. The best, most recent example of this mismanagement? For your consideration, I present a stark contrast in the treatment of our troops by military leadership.
Here we see two complete opposites. On one hand, we have a man who volunteered to serve in the armed services three years ago, who has gained rank and leadership clout only to refuse a tour of duty in Iraq. A man who of his own free will and clear conscience enlisted in the service at the time of the Iraq invasion, only to refuse to take part in the military’s continued efforts in that nation. A man who is a deserter, a traitor, and at any other time in history would be hanged, shot, or otherwise executed for his outright refusal to serve.
And on the other: no less than eight soldiers held in United States armed forces prisons in solitary confinement for war crimes. Their crimes, which are deplorable if proven, are substantiated only by the testimony of enemy combatants and others of questionable credibility at best.

Consider the mismanagement, the utter lunacy. Lt. Ehren Watada stands before news cameras, is idolized and lauded as a hero, and granted the freedoms of an innocent man in spite of the fact that he is admittedly guilty of his crime. Then look at the treatment of our brave men held in solitary confinement, treated in ways that are prohibited for our own prisoners of war, on the mere accusations of the enemy. Generals with this level of ineptitude make Custer look like a careful and contemplative strategic mastermind.

Here’s what I find supremely ironic: imagine if Lt. Watada had engaged in this kind of public refusal to serve during the Viet Nam War. During Viet Nam, men who refused to be conscripted—conscripted!, without freedom of choice or thought—into the armed forces and refused to serve were immediately imprisoned. Others fled to Canada and became pariahs, persona non grata in their own homeland. These men were compelled to serve and did so bravely and selflessly, much the our soldiers overseas do today. Had a man refused to serve during World War II, the consequences would have been even more dire. Go back further in history, and you find treatment that becomes more brutal aggressive towards this type of treason. Yet no sooner did Lt. Watada go public with his insubordination did websites like www.thankyoult.com pop up in support of this man.

Today I find myself united with Liberals and others entrenched against the Iraq War in wondering “When will the insanity end?” Though the question is posed for contrasting reasons, any kind of answer, any clear leadership, any brand of justice, would be most welcome.

Since I’m not a Democrat, I’m indifferent to the primary elections dominating the headlines. As I have no ability to impact the result of those elections, I won’t discuss them. Instead, I’d like to look at a matter closer to home. Springfield Public Schools has requested a levy for funding to support the Springfield public schools. The past three attempts to pass such a levy have failed. Perhaps, one might wonder, the school system would recognize that additional funding from increasing the tax rate will continue to fail. Perhaps, one may then conclude, the schools would seek alternate avenues of securing funding, and set a precedent for the Toledo community—along with the State of Ohio. But status quo, my friends, status quo prevails. Hopefully, status quo will continue to include a rejection of the levy.

There are two primary reasons that these ballot measures should fail, and a third reason that I feel they should fail, though I recognize some may disagree.

The taxation of property owners is unjust, and represents the kind of ‘taxation without representation’ that led to the birth of a nation. Let me pose a hypothetical situation. My neighbor and I earn the same amount of money annually, live in homes that assessed at the same value, and pay our taxes accurately, including property taxes which are used to fund local schools and are increased levies. Now suppose I have no children. Also suppose my neighbor has two and sends them to the local public schools. In this situation, not only will I receive no direct benefit for my contribution to the local public schools, I will contribute more than my neighbor who receives significant direct benefits from his contribution. My neighbor will contribute less, because he will be eligible to receive tax credits for having children. Though, I may receive some marginal intangible benefit from a community with more intelligent children—who may be better behaved and more economically productive in the long-run for their education—this benefit is marginalized by the direct benefit observed by those who receive services rendered by the schools. Additionally, I will be further penalized by more taxation for paying for improvements to my residence that increases its value relative to my neighbor’s residence, as I will pay more in the short-run in sales taxes for the improvements, but more in the long-run for property taxes, for which I will not receive full benefit. Finally, both my neighbor and I will be paying taxes on property which may be taken by local government under eminent domain.

No empirical dataset has been produced to indicate that a greater amount of money spent on public education produces greater amounts of educational success. It also holds that no relationship exists between smaller classroom sizes and greater educational success. And it’s not for a lack of trying, either. To the contrary, studies have been authored attempting to prove that these correlations exist. But schools are one example of the common wisdom that simply throwing money into a situation does not guarantee that the situation will improve.

Rather than funding schools through monies extracted from local taxpayers in the form of property taxes, the funding for schools should be derived from the people utilizing the schools’ services. This leads to my argument that all schools should be private, and government run schools should not be the universal standard. I realize this perspective perfectly contradicts the status quo, and scares a lot of people. But consider the private schools that exist in your community, and compare them to the public ones. Consider the complete lack of accountability in public schools, and the inability of all taxpayers to affect change on their local schools. Consider the lack of diversity in perspective offered by state legislated curricula. Finally, consider this toolbag:

And consider the fact that he’s teaching again; in public schools. Way to go, Colorado—the state that brings us esteemed public educators, and the rape of a handicapped girl in a school stairwell during school hours.