When I was in US Army Infantry Officer Candidate School in 1967, one of the guys in our company expressed his opinion that the US had no business in Vietnam. As future infantry officers, we were all well aware that we were going to Vietnam and we did not appreciate his viewpoint, which we took to be un-American. He was pulled out of the class and investigated by military authorities. I do not know if he continued in the army after that - whether he was discharged, reinstated in another class, or what.
But the point is that the military looked into his comments and background. They don't appear to be doing that today.
Ironically, with the benefit of hindsight, I totally agree that we had no business in Vietnam and am a little embarrassed at how upset most of us were with our classmate's comments. But publicly expressing viewpoints that oppose US policy while in the military is not a good thing and, IMHO, should not be acceptable. The military has a job to do and that job is determined by the government. Although sadly sometimes the job gets reversed during the same conflict.
Of course, one could argue that the SS was just "doing their job" as they exterminated "enemies of the Reich." And, in a strict sense of it - "following orders" - I guess they were. But the US Army has always made a big deal about "illegal orders," such as those issued by Lt William Calley at My Lai. I met Lt Calley at Ft Benning in 1969 (after my first tour in VN) and he and I and a couple other LTs had a drink at the O-club. Seemed like a nice guy.
Just goes to show that you never know how people are going to react in any given situation. And I learned in combat that you just can't tell. I saw big badass jocktypes turn to crybabies while some geeky kid who wouldn't have lasted 2 seconds with one of them in a schoolyard fight, single-handedly attacks a bunkered machine gun and kills 4-5 bad guys.
Frankly, In this case, I don't think anything about the muslim association. Hey, Timothy McVeigh, a good 'ol American boy, killed a LOT more people when he blew up the Federal building in OKC. My impression is that this Major was simply a coward. He knew he was scheduled to go to the middle east and was afraid to go into a combat area. This despite the fact that he would never have seen any actual combat. He was scared and he couldn't deal with it. Ironic especially since he was a counsellor for battle trauma. It's sad that no one took his disagreement with the policy more seriously and people just standing in line had to die because of it.
It also again makes me strongly believe that anyone who deals with combat vets in regards to psychological issues who HASN'T been in combat, has no idea what he/she is doing.
AND ANOTHER THING... a football game (or any other sport/game) is NOT a war...so the next time you hear one of these fools for announcers say "Hey, it's a war out there on the field today," have the respect for vets to turn to some other channel.
Sorry for getting a bit wound up and rambly.
