General Casey

pedro4

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Awful. Just Awful. You know better than that. Will advise my son at WP to get out ASAP rather than turn into a political animal like you.
 
You would advise your son; an adult who chose to attend West Point of his own accord and not because you told him to; (I assume it was his idea to attend and serve); to get out of the army as soon as possible. All because you don't trust your son, now that he's an adult, to make decisions for himself. Especially about political issues. And god forbid if your son happens to not see things as black and white as you do, and happens to choose differently for himself. And of course your son is so insecure, that he would instinctively emulate general Casey, if you're not there to help him decide for himself. I have trust that West Point has helped mature your son to be capable of making his own decisions.
 
Pedro:
Gen Casey is not a product of West Point. He came from a ROTC program at Georgetown.
however his father was a West Point grad he made it up to Major General before being KIA in Vietnam.

So you can let your son stay at the academy.

TPG:
By only wearing cammies they only have to be taught how to put on one type of uniform. That cuts down on the time required for retraining.:yllol::shake:
 
I'm still wondering about the context...:confused:

If you mean his comment about his worry over backlash against Muslims, I think he is right. We can't condemn thousands of servicemen and women because of one murderer.
 
However, I do question why Gen. Casey, as Chief of Staff of the US Army was even doing the interview…..isn’t that just a tad BELOW his pay grade?

He's a SME, and the implications of last weeks events could affect the entire Army. Could the Army find someone else for the interview? Sure. I don't see any problems having the Army's Chief of Staff speaking though. You regularly see COCOMs speaking too. Heck, the President speaks ALL THE TIME on TV. Maybe it just speaks to the level of the event.
 
Why is the fact that he is Muslim even an issue? In my mind it should not be and it is a shame that it is an issue. Maybe that is the question that we should be asking ourselves instead of worrying about a backlash that should not even come to fruition.

Well, a certain amount of profiling can be a good thing. We should notice trends occuring around us.
From the information released, his religious beliefs and experiences may have played an important role in his motivation.

Now, I certainly don't condone discriminating against Muslims. That is a clear violation of many laws, including the Constitution (besides being ethically wrong).
We need to gather information, and determine the proper way to respond to trends we discover. Ignoring motivations for the sake of political correctness is not good, and using bits and pieces of information to start a campaign of discrimination would be terrible. I'm suggesting a legal and moral middle ground.
 
LITS-
This is probably where I show my age just a little. I entered the Marine Corps when Gen. Cushman was Commandant of the Corps. He always had a policy of speaking through the chain of command. If an event had occurred that needed to be addressed publically, he allowed the command at that location to speak for the Marine Corps. Granted, things have changed since then. For one, CNN and the 24 hour news cycle was not even thought of yet. I guess I have always believed that was the best policy.

I have no problem with Gen Casey speaking to the Army. In fact he should speak to the entire Army through the chain of command. But I do not feel that it was his place to speak publicly about what has transpired at Ft. Hood. I feel that it should have either been left up to the CG of Ft. Hood to speak on behalf of Ft. hood or it should be up to the US Army Senior Public Affairs officer to speak on behalf of the Army from Washington. If by chance those senior leaders felt that a more senior person should speak on behalf of the US Army, then let it be the Secretary of the Army as the Civilian Head. Personally there is a part of me feels that he (Gen. Casey) subrogated the media for the chain of command. Again, this is just a personal opinion only.

Hope that helps you understand where I am comming from. Oh, and I am not saying that that is the "right" policy.

Understood tpg. Your most senior, practiced PAO in the Army is a colonel. The commanding general of Fort Hood has spoken numerous times about the incident. If the understanding was that the topic would remain COMPLETELY on Fort Parker, then sure, he would have been fine speaking. If the idea was that questions could expand to include "whole Army" questions, then the commanding general of a single post is NOT the right person for the job. We're talking Army policy. There are few people who can talk, with authority, about Army policy and pull the credibility of the Chief of Staff of the Army. He's a 4-star. There are plenty of 4-stars in the Army. As CENTCOM handles strategy in Iraq.....what in the Army is so urgent that the Chief of Staff could not sit in front of a camera for 20 min or an hour?

I also believe if I were a soldier and 13 of my "Teammates" were just killed on base by a fellow soldier, and there were "whole Army" implications....I would want to see and hear from the Chief of Staff. I would certainly assume that I would see a 4-star. And if it was "whole military" then I would expect to see the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs or the Vice Chairman atleast.

Completely understand your thought of using the chain of command, and obviously that is an internal way of doing this, one that I am sure is being used right now. Externally however, the Army needs to reassure the American people that the safety and wellbeing is a major concern of the Army, especially here at home, on post. The American people need to know that the Army takes is seriously. I think putting the Chief of Staff in front of cameras goes a long way in reassuring people.
 
having watched this interview this morning- I am absolutely puzzled as to what Pedro could possibly have been posting about here. What else the man possibly could have said at this point is beyond me.
I have to agree with LITS- I really think in this situation that the soldiers and much of the country were expecting to hear from the CoS. The Secretary of the Army is a nonentity to most folks- he's a political animal, not in uniform and not in the actual or perceived chain of command. I don't think that a communication from him would resonate with them the way the Chief would- and I certainly don't think that a PAO would get any air time comparable to this anyway.
BTW I agree with TPG on the camouflage- it's just a dopey concept that ought to get pitched.
 
I'm still wondering about the context...:confused:

If you mean his comment about his worry over backlash against Muslims, I think he is right. We can't condemn thousands of servicemen and women because of one murderer.

Unfortunately there are many people in the US who will automatically condemn all Muslims because of what this murderer did. I hate to admit it but some of my in-laws think like this. :thumbdown:
 
bruno - I am not making the connection either. Time for pedro4 to explain how he came to his conclusion.


Didn't Stormin' Norman start the camo thing when he wore his BDU's (or whatever they were called back then) for his daily briefings?
 
Didn't Stormin' Norman start the camo thing when he wore his BDU's (or whatever they were called back then) for his daily briefings?

Yeah he did but he at least was in Saudi Arabia when he was doing those- but the Army policy of wearing the ACU for everything just seems silly. For example I had to present at a college fair last week- the other Services were in Class A uniform & the Marines in blues wearing medals. The Army was wearing ACU which just seemed really out of place. In the Airport- every soldier is wearing ACUs- not just the ones on leave back from the sand box who are the folks who ought to be travelling that way but the rest? The other services aren't travelling that way. Go to the Army Archives at Carlisle Barracks (surely the last line of defense in the farthest rear echelon of the nations defense system :rolleyes:) and the military members there are wearing ACU. The policy is some brain storm of the CofS to show that "it's an Army at War" but it seems silly and kind of sloppy in a lot of settings especially when the other services show up dressed for a more formal affair instead of looking like they should be in the field or the motor pool. It's just an opinion- not gospel but I agree with tpg on that one.
 
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