Soldier Harr. Upd.

An Update from Confederate Yankee on Soldier Harrassment:

Bob Owens, known as "Confederate Yankee" in the blogosphere, has run down the source of the memo advising soldiers not to wear their uniforms while commuting. He says there is only one confirmed incident of harrassment of soldiers on the Metro.

Bob concludes, rather harshly:

The memo sent to Department of Defense security managers was authored at a high level, and exaggerated the number of verbal assaults from one confirmed event into an apparent outbreak, while attempting to shift authorship to another federal agency.

Soldiers are not being systematically targeted by aggressive anti-war protesters in the Washington D.C. area, but someone within the Department of Defense is willing to stoke those fears, without merit.
Let me share with you a photo from Iraq.



That's a bridge, the only bridge over a deep ditch filled with mucky water. It's between the DFAC and a headquarters building, so soldiers will walk over this bridge every day, several times a day.

Notice that the Army has not only put up walls to funnel traffic onto the bridge -- in case anyone didn't notice the ten-foot ditch filled with muck -- but has also marked it with day-glo arrows.

Also notice that they have sandbagged the nearby Amnesty box, any contents of which are supposed to be destroyed.

Lest you think this is just the Army, witness the Air Force Safety Brief.
So a couple of years back, an Air Force chief of staff declared that it was his intention to "reduce accidents by 50%." Every since, we've been the nanny service....where the Air Force's first and last line of defense against accidents is a cumbersome, poorly crafted "safety briefing."

Want to drive to the field? Get a safety brief. Climb a ladder? Safety brief. Take a weekend? Safety brief.
So, take the memo in that spirit. I objected to the memo because I thought it suggested a passive approach where a very active one ought to be implied. It's clearly in keeping, however, with the military's "safety brief" approach to civilization.

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