According to the report, Ohannessian charged from his home in his underwear and began aiming a pistol at three men who were leaving a party at a neighbor's house. The Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy was videotaped pointing a pistol at the men's heads, shouting profanity and screaming things like:
"I could shoot the f--- out of you right now!"
"Get in the car and get out of here before I blow you away!"
"Public drunkenness is an f-----g crime!"
The incident happened on June 11th, but was hushed up by authorities until the video was leaked to the press, forcing Fairfax County officials to reopen the case. Ohannessian, a civilian environmental contractor and graduate of UC Berkeley, came to the Pentagon in 2003 as part of Bush Junior's policy of outsourcing military duties to the private sector. He was promoted to his current post in January 2016 by President Obama.
The Pentagon has been suffering a wave of criminal activities recently. In May, Pentagon press spokesman Bryan Whitman was jailed for going berserk in a parking dispute and vandalizing a woman's car. Whitman, a former Army officer with a high-level security clearance, plea-bargained to a misdemeanor. In June, Admiral Robert Gilbeau was disgraced after admitting to accepting bribes from a corrupt defense contractor and Singaporean mob boss "Fat Leonard" Francis. The same day that Ohannessian was arraigned in fact, a Shaw Air Force Base Wing Commander was indicted for possession of child pornography and obstruction of justice.
This is the quality of leadership to which we in the Prozac Nation entrust the defense of our lives and property.
The US military has been in a state of severe decline since the early 1990s. The Reagan Administration reformed the post-Vietnam Era military into a professional, highly-trained, and high-tech force of fighting men. The Clinton Administration---comprised of people who by their own admission loathed the military culture---introduced their Cultural Marxism into the ranks. Things declined further under Bush Junior---who corrected none of Clinton's policies, but instead began outsourcing military prerogatives to often shady civilian contractors. The Obama Administration has accelerated both negative policies.
By and large the American public will tolerate no criticism of our brave men and women in uniform (an oft-repeated corporate-media soundbite). Yet, the evidence is mounting that, in spite of some impressive technological achievements, the quality of American military personnel and leadership is dangerously substandard. In the South China Sea fiasco, we see that our military strategy is actually based on bluffing capable opponents; in Libya and elsewhere we see the strategy as employing excessive force on weaker opponent. These are the tactics of thugs who are keenly aware of their own weakness, and not of professional soldiers who back up their words with deeds when peaceful options are exhausted.
Professional soldiers do not go berserk and point guns at rowdy neighbors; they do not fall on their knees and publically apologize to foreign powers; they do not use bases to harbor fugitives like they do in Okinawa---in short, they do not behave as the US military currently does.
But unfortunately, there is no explaining any of this the American public. National defense---like public education and self-government---is somebody else's job. Whatever doesn't make the average Ameroboob feel outraged or uncomfortable doesn't register as a serious problem in the public mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment