Dear Gene-Thomas,

I thought you were wrong and disloyal to have assumed that the Marines were guilty in your response to the writer whose wife does not want him to reenlist following allegations surrounding the deaths at Haditha.  Richard

Dear Richard,

In my response to Roger in last week’s column, I did not pass judgment on the Marines who were reported by Time magazine to be under investigation involving deaths of Iraqi citizens in Haditha. I will leave that matter to investigators and the military judicial system. However, by entitling the article, “Systemic Cover-ups,” I posited that wrongdoings are often poorly investigated and covered-up at times by senior leaders who are concerned with how the misconduct of subordinates within their chain of command could harm their own careers. I further posited that justice sometimes is not served within the military unless the media and Congress become involved.  

Is someone in the military “disloyal” if he or she reports wrongdoing on the part of a fellow service member? I would hope that Marines from the battalion involved in Haditha would not hesitate to tell investigators the whole truth about the events surrounding the incident in question.  

When Lieutenant General Matthew Cooper and I provided General Carl E. Mundy, Jr. with input as to what the Core Values of the Marine Corps should be, the Commandant chose “Courage” that LtGen Cooper and I both suggested; “Commitment” that LtGen Cooper recommended; and “Honor” that I proposed. Even though Marines appreciate loyalty, most would not differ with the saying, “loyalty above all else except honor.” It is for this reason that General Mundy said in his speech promulgating the Core Values, “You cannot be a Marine without honor.”

People who participate in cover-ups are “without honor” and are often motivated by feelings of loyalty or fear. I know an officer who achieved flag rank after lying under oath in order to protect an even more senior officer. Had he told the truth, the career of his senior officer would have come to a screeching halt. By lying, however, both were promoted and the wrongdoing they were covering up was never brought to justice. How many senior leaders, both military and political, have escaped prosecution for perjury and other offenses while lower ranking individuals have suffered imprisonment for similar offenses?  

While some Congressional representatives are demanding to know how high a cover-up may have gone (if in fact it did occur), they may also wish to consider if the Marines involved were properly trained to carry out the tasks they were assigned. By tasking individuals with undertakings that they are not adequately trained to fulfill, are we setting them up for failure?

How does the mission of the Marine Corps differ from that of the Army today?  Was it right to have tasked Marines instead of the Army with setting up and defending a fixed compound in Beirut? Has Marine Corps training that has evolved from “amphibious” to “expeditionary” adequately prepared Marines for the police-type of responsibilities many of them are tasked with today? Does military Core Values training include the ethics of war employing lessons learned from our recent involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq? As the Haditha investigation evolves and we adhere to our belief that the accused are innocent until proven guilty, we can only hope that the process, as painful as it may be, may contribute to our country having a better trained and more ethical military force.

Gene-Thomas Gomulka
Author of The Survival Guide for Marriage in the Military available at www.plaintec.net
Have a question? Write Gene-Thomas at letters@plaintec.net