April 7, 2007 -- "A SOLDIER'S law in the U.S. Army holds: "The maximum effective range of an excuse is zero meters." Yesterday, the two officers on a panel of former British hostages delivered nothing but excuses for their disgraceful conduct.
No matter how codes of conduct for prisoners of war are worded, none countenances voluntary collaboration with the enemy. A POW doesn't have to engage in daily violent resistance, but he's obligated to avoid providing active support to his captors.
The Brit hostages failed the test, and theirs was a failure of leadership. Perhaps the enlisted sailors and Royal Marines can be redeemed, but their officers need to be cashiered.
Another ironclad military rule - not always fair, but generally wise - runs that, "An officer is responsible for everything his subordinates do or fail to do." While the two Brit officers, held separately from their sailors and marines, obviously couldn't control every subordinate's actions, the speed with which some enlisted personnel complied with what their captors asked says a great deal about the atmosphere prevailing in the unit.
Queried as to why they agreed to do propaganda broadcasts for the Iranians, neither officer behaved as officers should. The right answer would have been: What we did was wrong. We're ashamed. Instead, we got repugnant swagger and hair-splitting over qualifying adjectives and adverbs - We didn't really say what we said.
Good officers don't whine and dodge. They accept responsibility.
By their own admission, none of the hostages was tortured. While held in solitary confinement early on, they consistently got three meals a day, plenty to drink, blankets and toilet privileges. It's stunning that officers would be so morally weak that, under such mild circumstances, they caved in to their captors virtually overnight.
They shamed their country and their services - and encouraged our mutual enemies to believe they can act with ever greater impunity.
The enlisted men yesterday came across as far more honorable; they deserved better leadership. The Brits should court-martial those two officers. But they won't..."
*Emasculated. Let that not only be your word for the day, but kept forever in mind when imagining the modern Brit.
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