Scott Thomas is an ass
John Barnes posits an interesting theory as to the identity of The New Republic’s author, Scott Thomas. It’s a very fascinating analysis marred by a slip at the end. Below is the comment that I left on the discussion board where the replies are beginnig to accumulate.
I’d like to add my second to Mark Twain’s point regarding whether or not there truly are “many beyond the eyes of authority” and whether their “superior officers will be devoting any large amount of time and effort to finding or suppressing it”. Albeit, I’d like to do so a bit more gently.
Casual slander of this sort is problematic because it is exactly so jarring from both the tone and the seriousness of your initial post, which I greatly enjoyed reading. Your analysis was both lucid and insightful precisely because it was so well-informed given your day job. It’s painful to see such a slip show up as a throw-away line backed by nothing more than your probably assertion. It shows a bit of sloppiness in your analysis.
I personally have never served in our military in any capacity, but it has been both my honor and my privilege to know many, many members over the years both active duty and retired. Their stories have always been interesting and informative sometimes just because they served to educate me on exactly how many things that I routinely take for granted. I’m speaking of things both major and minor from where I will live to when I will awake in the morning.
In addition, I’ve taken great pains through the years to augment the knowledge gained from real-live military folks with book learning as they say here in the Southern states. It’s really not hard to pick up on the culture of the military with just a little work. One thing that has always, always impressed me is how infused our soldiers are with personal ethics that far exceed the average civilians.
Now, having set the stage, let me address the first point that I mentioned above: “many beyond the eyes of authority”. There are almost certainly few if any of the active duty personnel serving in Iraq today who would fit this statement, and certainly none who would be serving in the unit described by “Scott Thomas”.
The only soldiers who spend any amount of time beyond the eyes of authority are likely to be in special operations of some sort as they are on missions taking them out of direct contact with the chain of command at HQ (think behind enemy lines). Even then, there is always an authority whether it be the officers or non-coms on the ground or just the uniform code of military justice. Now, I’ve known a number of special forces folks in my time, and I would trust them implicitly with my life and the lives of my loved ones. They have all been the type of person who upon finding a wallet on the ground return it to the owner along with it’s cash and credit cards.
Regular soldiers are always under someone’s authority … even when they do not want to be there. My friends and companions who’ve served almost all spoke at some point about exactly how chafing it was to be under authority at all times. One went so far as to eschew haircuts for several years after his discharge (honorable) from the Navy as a residual effect of living under the thumb of his higher ups.
Now for the second point: “it is doubtful that superior officers will be devoting any large amount of time and effort to finding or suppressing it”. I cry foul on this one too.
Beyond the political correctness issues that Mark Twain Sam raised, I’d like to just point out that promotions do not come easily in today’s military, so serving officers tend to be a bit zealous about this type of thing. After all, not only is it the right thing to do, it’s the right thing for their career as well. You don’t have to take my word for it, just think back on the various scandals we’ve seen in the last few years and realize that the military justice system uncovered them first; Abu Ghraib, Haditha, etc.
Please accept this critique in the spirit of “iron sharpening iron” as I don’t mean for it to come across as a gotcha post. Your analysis was otherwise very interesting. Keep up the good work.