Thursday, July 08, 2004
A New One for the War College
NYTimes: Missing Marine Surfaces at U.S. Embassy in Lebanon0 comments
Ooooh, this is gloriously messy! Great twisted fun.
You can file this under "Problems You Face When You Don't Have a Just, Popular War."
In one of those seriously twisted moments that arise eventually in most wars, the Marine command could see a greater gain from simply sacrificing one of their own.
Especially when they're aided by lightening-fast news cycles that land on a story, then immediately slide on to something else.
You can rest assured that the Marine command would have been as happy as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to see 24-yr.-old Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun beheaded by his captors.
It would have just made it all so much cleaner and easier.
He then would have simply been a Folk Hero, 1st Class, and the Marines could drape themselves in the flag reserved for his coffin, and milk his foreigner status and Muslim background as a sure sign that the adminstration's cause is just and supported by Muslims the world over, etc., etc.
And simply skip admitting how and why he left the base he was on in the first place.
They've already got guys among the 5,300 surprise redeployment group refusing to show up.
You've got active service soldiers being rotated home, then saying, "I'm not going back." And accepting jail time for their stands.
To now have to admit that guys are just starting to walk away in-country is more than "A Few Good Men" are prepared to handle.
If he were simply AWOL or a deserter, this would be easy. They'd slam him into prison or shoot the poor bastard.
But how do you execute a media darling, Folk Hero, 1st Class and come out smiling?
But, more importantly, how do you keep other guys from saying, "Fuck it, I ain't dying for this shit," and simply walking away as well?
Tricky points for the Marine command to wrestle with.
This is gonna keep 'em up nights at Camp Lejeune for quite a while, trying to figure out how to play this one.
posted by Gotham 4:04 PM
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