Man, the U.S. Army's taking a lot of fire these days, aren't they?  And I don't mean the Iraq and Afghanistan War kind of fire, I mean the bad press kind - you know, the kind that really matters.  Scandal after scandal - from the Jessica Lynch thing to the Pat Tillman thing to the Jessica Lynch thing to the Pat Till - ah, hold one.  How many things are we talking about here exactly?

First off, I don't want to downplay the seriousness of the transgressions, alleged or otherwise.  Government institutions, certainly those charged with waging war, cannot abuse the nation's trust.  Clearly, in both the Lynch and Tillman cases, some creative license was taken during the course of socializing the story to the world.  And among the ironies (and tragedies) is that manipulating information in that sort of way does nothing toward honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice.  Those who create leaps in logic, bend the truth, or outright lie must be punished.

But haven't we been through this already with respect to both of these cases?  Didn't the GAO release its detailed findings on the Tillman case a couple of months ago, which was basically a restatement of all the issues that had been made known well before that?  Didn't we already watch the expose a few years ago that intimated the Jessica Lynch rescue was staged to a certain degree?  Didn't we already rough the Army up over these things? 

And is there some sense that the Army (outside of a few misguided souls in certain chains of command) is okay with leaping logic, bending truth, or lying?

 Yet here these stories are again, dominating the airwaves and jumping out of headlines above the fold.  Where did they come from?

The usual place stories come from on slow news days:  Congress.

That's right, the Fightin' 110th, the same organization that promised leadership, bi-partisanship, and the right kind of change in Washington once they got there continues to prove they have no interest in any of that.  They'd rather recycle the same old scandals by inviting perhaps unwitting (I'll be generous here) media icons to testify the same testimony they gave last time (except it was on a different channel, of course).  It's like watching Ozzy's umpteenth farewell tour.  I half-expected the folks in the back of the caucus room to raise lighters and scream, "Iron Man!"

Meanwhile the real issues, ones that need oversight and leadership are left unattended.  Are we winning or losing the war?  Damned if I know.  But we're sure not making any progress by beating the Army up over and over again about the same things.

I could blame the media for being party to this illusion, but that would be like blaming an infant for looking at the shiny object above the crib.

So as we refuse to accept an institution that doesn't uphold the highest traditions of military service, so too should we demand more from our lawmakers.  After all, they promised us more.