Carronade The Yankee Sailor Carronade

The Sea is a choosy mistress. She takes the men that come to her and weighs them and measures them. The ones she adores, she keeps; the ones she hates, she destroys. The rest she casts back to land. I count myself among the adored, for I am Her willing Captive.

FLASH TRAFFIC:
I've relocated to a new Yankee Sailor.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

The Partisan Exploitation of Servicemen

AMERICAblog reports on the reissuance of DoD standards on the political conduct of servicemembers. Apparently a high profile Republican House member trod dangerously close to, if not over the line recently, but by digging through the links you can discover that both major parties, Democrat and Republican, are reported to have formally integrated the use of servicemembers as political props into their strategies.

Certainly military members need to know the rules of what we can and cannot do with respect to partisan political activities. The bigger question in my mind is, however, who's got our backs? Why should I as a member have to give the "thanks for the invitation, but no thanks?" Shouldn't someone at the civilian levels of control in the DoD be sending the message to the parties and pols to cease and desist?

Maybe Secretary Rumsfeld's memo is part of that process, but I've seen few other signs of a plan in action.