Captain Crozier, a dialogue begins (update #5 - Apr 7)
And what a beginning. An OpEd at the NYTimes (not blocked) by Tweed Roosevelt, the great-grandson of Theodore Roosevelt who has personal knowledge of a precedent to Captain Crozier. There are undoubtedly many more precedents and hopefully we'll soon hear about many of them.
Read it as excerpts won't do it justice: Captain Crozier Is a Hero
The military could use a few more people like Captain Crozier and a few less like Thomas Modley.
Update 5 Apr. The following is an important element in consideration of this matter. From Thank You, Captain Crozier
Second, I should have pointed out that Thomas Modly, the acting secretary of the Navy who dismissed Crozier, was in that role because his predecessor, Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer, was forced out of that job when he resisted Donald Trump’s efforts on behalf of Edward Gallagher, the former Navy SEAL who was prosecuted for war crimes in a court martial. (The Trump administration is replete with “acting” officials, who can exercise some of the powers of their offices without going through Senate hearings or confirmation.)
Note: Richard Spencer appears not to have resisted Trump's efforts on behalf of the convicted Gallagher. It was more an issue of Spencer speaking privately with Trump, which was outside the chain of command, on how to get a sweet deal for Gallagher.
Modly echoes Robert Bork in 1973 -- the hatchet man for a madman in the WH.
Update #2 Captain Crozier reportedly tests positvie for COVID-19
Update #3 - Apr 6 Modly blasts Capt Crozier as 'stupid'
The Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly blasted the now ousted commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt as "stupid" in an address to the ship's crew Monday morning, in remarks obtained by CNN.
Modly told the crew that their former commander, Capt. Brett Crozier, was either "too naive or too stupid" to be in command or that he intentionally leaked to the media a memo in which he warned about coronavirus spreading aboard the aircraft carrier and urged action to save his sailors.
This is heavy PR from Modly/Trump. Also, IMO, a rather stupid response to clear up the issue with those on the USS Roosevelt. Will it inflame the matter?
Update #4 - Apr 6 Modly bombed earlier today. So much so that:
Modly apologiized
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly apologized to crew members of the USS Theodore Roosevelt and its former commander Monday evening over remarks he made earlier in the day calling Capt. Brett Crozier "naive" or "stupid."
"Let me be clear: I do not think Captain Brett Crozier is naive or stupid," Modly said in a statement obtained by several media outlets. "I think, and always believed him to be the opposite."
...
Does put the onus on Modly instead of Trump. Trump has been known to fire his hatchet man when it gets too hot for him (Trump).
Update #5 Modly "resigns." Sure looks as if I called this one.
Comments
The powers that be had better be careful
how they treat the military.
Of course, as always, I wonder why the New York Times would publish something like this. I suppose because it puts blame (rightfully so, this time) on the Trump administration.
Although individual journalists might have personal concerns for the health and safety of other human beings, the NYT as an institution has long ago passed beyond the pale--I no longer believe their editorial board could or would make the decision to publish something like this for moral reasons. But whatever their reasons, I'm glad they did.
And the PTB, no matter which partisan mask they're using today, had better be careful how they treat the military.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Careful? The PTB have been using the military
like a condom to fuck over foreign nations for decades. They used a whole case each for the Vietnam War, Iraq War I and Iraq War II plus a party pack or two in a couple of dozen other trysts.
Just have to sweet talk them and they're horny to go.
Let's not overlook the fact of
the anti-Vietnam War activities of US troops. "Peaceniks" were ahead of them but as usual were dismissed. Those soldiers were truly instrumental in taking it up a notch that was more difficult to ignore. It's also why TPTB ended the draft a few years later; an all volunteer military makes it much easier to weed out those that can see and think.
Keeping a significant portion of young Americans
destitute ensures a constant supply of cannon fodder.
Sorry to be so pessimistic. I've been around this block too many times to have much faith left.
Always has hasn't it?
And on top of that is the heavy USG military propaganda, significantly assisted by Hollywood, both promoting the excitement of war and heroism.
Faith in the US military should have died with the Vietnam War and for a brief period of time, Hollywood actually made movies that reflected that. Then along came Reagan and Rambo.
Not exactly what I meant.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
In this instance a no-brainer for the NYT.
Bashing Trump and in turn bashed by Trump is a now a long-standing game for both. Plus, the NYTimes disavows any responsibility for the content of Op-Ed articles and knew perfectly well that this one would get published if they rejected it.
Trump and Republicans do so well with military enlistees and officers that Crozier's firing is unlikely to change that. Following orders and the chain of command is like a religion to them regardless of how much they are individually abused.
With the update, now agree more
with your comment on TPTB not messing with the military, but would change TPTB to Trump. It appears that in both instances, Gallagher and Crozier, what Trump wanted was contrary to the Navy brass recommendations. So, that's two strikes for Trump with naval officers. Depending on how sailors viewed the exoneration of Gallagher and assuming that they objected to Crozier's firing, that's either one of two strike for Trump among the enlistees.
Had Crozier simply called the ER in Tacoma, he would
have found out that there was no problem after all.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
I guess it’s lucky for his soldiers
That he didn’t.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Yes, and now 155 sailors
have tested positive for Covid-19.
Apparently, you're still trapped in the cognitive frames of a
rational universe, not realizing that the nefarious promulgators of Covid19 have somehow engineered an alteration in the very fabric of our reality. In the new, irrational -- possibly even transcendental -- universe, the front line in the fight against this so-called pandemic is located in Tacoma, Washington, where one ER had only 3 people present with Covid19 in a recent uneventful day. Therefore, the sailors on the TR were clearly in no peril, and rather than fretting and writing memos, Crozier would have been well-advised to hold a big luau on the flight deck.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Choices ...
I'd rather walk down that ramp with my head held high with my crew chanting my name than wear an Admiral's star in shame.
That's a real leader. In the finest tradition of the USN.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
That's the stuff of movies that the masses pay to see.
To give them the warm fuzzies about military officers. It's not how admirals and generals think and behave. They rise by sucking up. Colin Powell did it twice -- first covering up My Lai and three decades later pitching a pack of lies to get GWB's war on.
There's a reason
only the sell outs are famous. Smedley butler comes to mind even if he wasn't directly in service when he told the truth. I'd never heard of him until reading this site, and of course there's a reason for that. There are a few rebels but they're silenced very effectively. Pat Tillman provides a nice example.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
The sell outs command MSM press attention and
that's what drives name recognition. Oh, and there are lots of medal pinning ceremonies for them and that gets attention in media reports as well. And of course those sell outs dominate the later history books and their own memoirs.
Enlistees keep their mouths shut -- and aren't empathetic towards those like Manning who don't.
As much as we can appreciate Smedley Butler, it's tiresome that he and others only spoke out after after collecting all the available to them. Ike only forewarned of the MIC as he was leaving the WH.
You left out his role in declining the offer of the locals to
simply hand over Manuel Noriega, thereby allowing CIA Bush to claim to have a casus belli for a war he greatly desired to start.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Am sure if one looked more closely,
and had access to more information than what hits the MSM and alt-media, there would be more than three for the not-so-good general. Don't ask-don't tell was another terrible rec from him -- yet another search for the mythical middle ground that creates new problems.
The unseen killer; 1776 edition
Smallpox
btw - Martha Washington was inoculated before joining her husband at the military camp in 1776. That was when inoculation wasn't without serious potential harm.