February 14, 2011
In Which I Pariah-fy Myself
I have long had a great deal of respect for Allan West, ( R, FL-22).
Below is video of him giving a superb speech at the close of CEPAC 2011. The speech itself is quite good, but that is not why I'm commenting on it. It is after all being widely shown throughout the rightosphere.
I'm commenting because this clip, which I got via Cdr. Salamander, has footage I had previously missed...Footage that bothers me.
West's speech begins about 8 and a half minutes in, but it is what happens prior that I find disturbing. Specifically, West is introduced by a military service member in uniform who proceeds to make a very short but quite partisan statement at a completely partisan function...I remind you that he is in uniform.
I like West a lot, but this is a no-no.
A big no-no.
It is not acceptable for the military to get involved in politics in any way. That is how republics die. I would expect West, who is a history buff ought to know that. He is certainly aware of Department of Defense Directive 1344.10 (and for the USCG, the Hatch Act).
It is inevitable that when one party is the one that spat on our military and still treats them with barely disguised contempt, that many in the military lean the other way...when out of uniform and off duty. It is not in any way acceptable for them to be expressing that as military members in uniform.
As I mentioned during the McChrystal fiasco, we have many republics to the south of us in this hemisphere.Most had the military get involved in politics in some way.That did not turn out well.
This is disturbing. But not as disturbing as the fact that I've not heard ANYONE comment on this, which bothers me rather more than the indiscretion itself.
UPDATE: Over at Cdr Salamander's, people are commenting on this impropriety. I note that they all seem to be current or former military.
UPDATE 2:The video has been removed by the user. A slightly shorter version with the 8 minute introduction removed can be seen here . It contains the bit relevant to my concern as well as the otherwise excellent speech. The full C-SPAN vid with intro is available on C-Span for now here
Below is video of him giving a superb speech at the close of CEPAC 2011. The speech itself is quite good, but that is not why I'm commenting on it. It is after all being widely shown throughout the rightosphere.
I'm commenting because this clip, which I got via Cdr. Salamander, has footage I had previously missed...Footage that bothers me.
West's speech begins about 8 and a half minutes in, but it is what happens prior that I find disturbing. Specifically, West is introduced by a military service member in uniform who proceeds to make a very short but quite partisan statement at a completely partisan function...I remind you that he is in uniform.
I like West a lot, but this is a no-no.
A big no-no.
It is not acceptable for the military to get involved in politics in any way. That is how republics die. I would expect West, who is a history buff ought to know that. He is certainly aware of Department of Defense Directive 1344.10 (and for the USCG, the Hatch Act).
It is inevitable that when one party is the one that spat on our military and still treats them with barely disguised contempt, that many in the military lean the other way...when out of uniform and off duty. It is not in any way acceptable for them to be expressing that as military members in uniform.
As I mentioned during the McChrystal fiasco, we have many republics to the south of us in this hemisphere.Most had the military get involved in politics in some way.That did not turn out well.
This is disturbing. But not as disturbing as the fact that I've not heard ANYONE comment on this, which bothers me rather more than the indiscretion itself.
UPDATE: Over at Cdr Salamander's, people are commenting on this impropriety. I note that they all seem to be current or former military.
UPDATE 2:The video has been removed by the user. A slightly shorter version with the 8 minute introduction removed can be seen here . It contains the bit relevant to my concern as well as the otherwise excellent speech. The full C-SPAN vid with intro is available on C-Span for now here
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
10:53 AM
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