Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a news conference today that the nation's military leadership is embarrassed by the scandal. "We let the boss down," he said. "I can speak for myself and my fellow chiefs: We're embarrassed by what occurred in Colombia, though we're not sure exactly what it is."
Don't Secret Service agents read John le Carre novels? What's going on: Military officials embarrassed by allegations of misconduct in Colombia | syracuse.com AM - US Secret Service sex scandal widens 17/04/2012 I'd be pleasantly surprised if General Dempsey knew where Colombia was, let alone the what, the how and the why of his soldiers' bordello antics. Of course the military heirarchy are embarrased....anything messy and morally disreputable having happened on their watch won't look terribly good in their memoirs. Some of the generals are embarrased, and some middle and junior ranking officers' careers just fell into a bottomless pit. It seems that some fairly simple avoidable lessons of life come hard to the careless and witless. Few military careers suffer because of good leadership, and meticulous attention to achieving their command's mission...careers are more often destroyed however by lax leadership, sleeping with your superior commander's wife (or mistress) or failing to keep (public moneys and non-public moneys) financial books of account to an acceptable auditable standard. The cavorting with prostitutes is not the issue to me...doing so while on a mission (even if at rest) is an issue....the break in operational discipline is an issue...bringing the reputation of the Service into disrepute is an issue, placing themselves in the potential position of being exploited (by blackmail) is an issue. It's the sort of thing that cold war honey traps are made of....don't they ever read John le Carre' spy novels in the Secret Service???
I find this peculiar and curious. Either this has happened before and it was covered up better or this is a planted distraction. On one hand, these are supposed to be the types of people that don't "break".. on the other hand, they are still fallible. I honestly don't know what to think.
I agree UGRev....simple stupidity and incompetence?....or is there a dark, sinister, wheels within wheels labyrinthine plot invloved??? I wonder if a cocktail dress stained with human genetic material will make an appearance? Were their "exotic dancers" a complimentary hospitality service? or was there a whip-around (so to speak) there by the players involved for beer, pizzas, and broads? If there was a "What happens in Cartagena stays in Cartagena" pact it doesn't seem to have worked very well. : S
We seem to have several scandals happening in a short amount of time. And now that's is all that's in the news. Something is up again and taking attention away from what is REALLY going on.
low intelligence Unfortunately it is a sad fact that the U.S. government has an ongoing process to hire least common denominator types. Mostly rejects from police departments or wannabe nazi types fresh out of school. Remember when they got in trouble they started flashing their badges. They are small minded and addicted to their power.
