An Officer, But No Gentleman

I suppose that those who will excuse anything and everything one of their own does will say that it's because of the stress of dealing with nuclear weapons, but what the U.S. Air Force general did went way beyond "misbehavior." You see, that is a term one uses when talking about schoolchildren who behave like... schoolchildren. But, when a military officer of his rank gets drunk repeatedly, gets involved with, most likely, prostitutes, is late for meetings and acts in a boorish manner all around in a foreign country while on official business, it's much more than some childish or innocent pranks. This man is obviously unfit to serve in any capacity; transferring him to another post is not the solution to his problems.

This case comes on the heels of another one in which a U.S. Navy admiral in charge of nuclear weapons also was sanctioned for illegal betting.

When you add to these situations the sexual harassment and outright rape that goes on in the U.S. military at all levels, it's a very different picture from all that official propaganda and Hollywood movies about gung-ho heroes who are squeaky clean.

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