core values
I can't quite decide how to respond to the announcement that U.S. servicemen and women will receive "Core Values Training" as a result of the ongoing investigation into the atrocities at Haditha.
1. I'm not against core values; I just wonder if they're something that can be taught in a slideshow presentation.
2. What makes this training different from the education members of the military are supposed to receive at boot camp and just before deployment?
3. I worry that the Haditha incident is not just a lapse of judgment on the part of a few individuals but an indication that something has gone terribly wrong far up the chain of command. Between the coverup, the grueling conditions of multiple tours-of-duty, and the mixed rationale for being in Iraq that has turned into nation-building, I wonder if that training is something a few people in D.C. might benefit from.
posted by Jessica @ 5:55 AM
6 Comments:
what i want to know is, why aren't they getting this core values training in boot camp?? that is where they should get it. now we have to spend even more money so these guys can watch film strips telling them not to kill innocent people on purpose??
They ARE getting core values training in boot camp. The officers get it all through ROTC. It's drilled into their heads. The soldiers hear it over and over and over as the learn to shoot first and ask questions later. Core values training is not the problem. The problem is that these boys and girls are being attacked, day in and day out, by an unseen enemy that they can't stop or control. They're frustrated. They're not taught to defuse situations, they're taught to "handle" them. These are young people who watch their friends die and get wounded and they can't stop it or help anyone. This is NOT an excuse. We are doing a disservice to our soldiers by sending them into this war zone that will ALWAYS be a war zone. There is NO break. There is NO rest. These soldiers snapped, plain and simple, and the longer they're there, the more we're going to see incidents like this.
UWL is probably on traget about them snapping. We all snap and lash out at times, ultimately saying and doing things we wish we hadn't when the pressures of work bear down on us. Of course it's different when you carry a machine gun to work...
The core values training is just some general's plan to cover his ass. Just tell the American public something is being done and maybe they won't get mad.
I agree with UWL, it's a difficult situation to be in, and only those involved can understand how they felt that day.
What they need are psychologists in the field keeping tabs on how the soldeirs are doing and giving them coping strategies. That would make us look soft in the government's eyes, I know, but it would make for a better situation in war, as well as when they come home. There are Vietnam verts who are still doing badly, and this war is just as bad, if not worse. Fighting an unseen enemy is much more frustrating and disturbing than knowing who you're shooting at and, though it's grim, being able to see that you got some of them before they got you. Our guys aren't getting that in this war, and it is taking it's toll. I have a lot of friends who came who different men because of what they've seen and done over there. They will never be the same. Core Values training is definitely a CYA kind of thing. What our soldeirs need is to be valued more than they are, and treated with the respect they deserve. I have a lot to say abotu this. I guess I should post on it.
It means nothing, kust words to make media feel better about reality of war.
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