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Thursday, September 3, 2015

Paying the Price for Doing the Right Thing

What does an Army Captain and Sgt 1st Class do when they find out an Afghan boy has been
repeatedly raped and his mother beaten by the Afghan local police? In 2011 the Army was sent to train and mentor the Afghan local police in Kunduz Province. They were not only being trained, but also equipped, armed and paid with our tax dollars. Some of these men were known to the Army as corrupt police officials who were carrying out beatings, honor killings and rapes. Captain Quinn and Sgt 1st Class Martland did what we would expect any honorable Soldier to do. They intervened on behalf of the boy and his mother. They confronted Police Commander Abdul Rahman. When Rahman laughed it off, Quinn and Martland shoved him to the ground. It was the only way to get their point across, according to Quinn. "As a man, as a father of a young boy myself at the time, I felt obliged to step in to prevent further repeat occurrences".

For shoving Abdul Rahman the Army relieved both men of their positions and reassigned them pending the outcome of an investigation. Quinn voluntarily separated from the Army. Martland being a Green Beret with eleven years of service desired to continue his career.  But because Martland was relieved for cause and there is a negative mark on his service record, he is being involuntarily discharged from the Army.  Once again common sense is no where to be found.


We expect honorable Soldiers to stand up for innocent children. Why isn't military leadership standing up for these men?  Unfortunately it's coming directly from the top.  Our president has repeatedly shown contempt for the military. He has taken steps to all but strip away the military's ability to be an effective force. There has been a systematic purging of those in military leadership who disagree with the president.  The serving men and women are caught between obeying orders and a command structure who won't stand up for them because they can't.  
These are dire times when good men are punished and destroyed  while our government elevates those who are evil.

We're thankful that men and women of integrity and good character continue to be willing to serve and sacrifice for our nation.  But how do we expect people to continue to enlist in the military when service men and women are seen as pawns in a political game by those who are in authority? 

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