Budget battles: If you want money, call it terrorism

What do you do if you have responsibilities, but no funding?

You call it something that DC will throw money at: Terrorism.



NYT reports the FBI is calling religious groups terrorists.

What's curious is the FBI has the time to monitor Quakers, but the Army's CID can't be bothered with investigating use of dogs to threaten detainees.

Apparently, there aren't enough DoD investigators to deal with the abuse investigations, so the investigators will, on their own, close out cases when they think the abuses -- use of dogs to intimdiate detainess -- are "no big deal." [Source: Tana McKelvey, The American Prospect]

In other words, because DoD can't attract enough people for all the missions, the troops are poorly led, not well trained, and are not credibly disciplined when there are violations of the law.

This is a leadership problem within DoD. Without a credible threat of sanctions for violations of the UCMJ and laws of war, one cannot argue their military forces are competently organized, trained, or equipped -- they are barbarians.

Will the ghosts from the long gray line surface: Patton, Eisenhower, and McCarthur? They've never left -- for now, ignored.

America's officer corps has failed.