Washington DC -
He just fired three more good generals, summarily and without legitimate cause. The U.S. Defense Secretary fired three more top Army Generals yesterday. Their transgressions? They dare put country, the Constitution, and the needs of our men and women in uniform ahead of the feckless political and pseudo-religious impulses of the Pentagon’s “leader.”
One of the terminated generals - in addition to the Army Chief of Staff himself - was an actual religious leader, a real man of the cloth named Major General William Green, Jr., the Army’s Chief of Chaplains - until yesterday. General Green (image below) served in the Iraq War and over a distinguished, worldwide career earned the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal.
As with all good chaplains, General Green is ecumenical and open to the needs of all faiths as well as people of no faith. He is reputed to be a great listener and marvelous therapist, which is a key role now negated by a Defense Secretary who wants chaplains preaching the word of God and not tending to the very human needs of their flock.
And therein lies the problem. The Defense Secretary is a zealot who believes there’s only one true religion - Christianity. Furthermore, he has no problem glorifying war in the name of God, even its most vile, murderous, and Geneva Convention-defying practices.
It is going to take a very long time to pick up the pieces and return our military to some sense of normalcy governed by law, morality, ethics, and professionalism.
