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SO MUCH FOR "JOINTNESS"
by Dale Brown, 2009

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT Facebook.com/AuthorDaleBrown, 20 August 2009

I get a lot of criticism for the admittedly intense inter-service rivalry in my novels that sometimes gets nasty, sometimes even "Sons Of Anarchy" hostile. I have always seen a lot of rivalry between the services. Every service thinks they are better than the others, or criticizes the others for this and that.

As much as I think there is a lot of rivalry and hostility, I also admit a lot of respect. My younger brother Jim learned more about leadership in his first two years as a tank commander and platoon commander in the Army than I learned in my eight years as a navigator/bombardier--the only thing I ever managed in the USAF was a flight plan, radar scope, and computers. And one visit to an aircraft carrier will forever give you a lot of respect for guys and gals that fly on and off those things, at night and in almost any kind of weather, let alone drop bombs and get shot at.

But show me the respect and commitment to "jointness"--the Pentagon's term for wanting to do everything together, rather than as separate services--in this excerpt from a speech by Army General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. Central Command, at a Marine Corps Association Foundation dinner recently, published in today's issue of Air Force Magazine Online:

"A soldier is trudging through the muck in the midst of a downpour with a 60-pound rucksack on his back. This is tough, he thinks to himself. Just ahead of him trudges an Army ranger with an 80-pound pack on his back. This is really tough, he thinks. And ahead of him is a Marine with a 90-pound pack on, and he thinks to himself, I love how tough this is. [laughter, applause] Then, of course, 30,000 feet above them - [laughter] - 30,000 feet above them an Air Force pilot flips aside his ponytail. [laughter, applause] Now - I'm sorry. I don't know how that got in there - [laughter] - I know they haven't had ponytails in a year or two - [laughter] - and looks down at them through his cockpit as he flies over. Boy, he radios his wingman, it must be tough down there. [laughter] Well, TV commercials and all joking aside, we've all seen that marines truly and consistently live up to their reputation."

I used to have lots of respect for Petraeus; I have ZERO respect for him now. Yes, I know this was a Marine Corps dinner--about as "partisan" as you can get--and it was supposed to be a joke. But this guy commands military members from ALL services in the Central Command theater of operations, and for him to belittle members of one service is an outrage.

Petraeus can apologize every day for a year, but it won't matter--he's shown what he truly believes in his heart, that Soldiers and Marines are worthy of respect but Airmen are wussies and pansies. No one in Air Force blue will ever have any respect for him again.

For the good of U.S. Central Command, General Petraeus should do the right thing and resign, immediately. His military and political futures are over.

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