UPDATE: Candidate for South Carolina Lt. Gov. belittles combat service
Posted by editor-at-large on 15 April 2010 at 5:44 pm UTC
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
A few days after the utterly ridiculous suggestion by Larry Richter (candidate for Lt. Gov. of S.C.) that combat decision-making is somehow a matter of snap-judgment – or as he says “abstract,” “reflexive,” and “reactionary” (and he played a bit of “air rifle” for emphasis) – I’m reminded of this 2008 piece by Rick Amato in Townhall.com wherein retired U.S. Marine Brig. Gen. David Brahms describes a few variables that are factored into combat decision-making.
“Our soldiers are on edge 24/7,” says Brahms. “There is no front line to retreat from. There is no uniform to identify the enemy. You have layers of ROE [rules of engagement], stress, fatigue and when something goes wrong they [soldiers] face accusations that bring life sentences.”
True, and yet, that doesn’t begin to cover the reality faced by combat-commanders who must deal with the same variables Brahms mentions as well as the responsibility of the lives (sometime deaths) of the men under their command.
Richter, we know, was attempting to marginalize the combat experience of Lt. Col. Bill Conner (also a candidate for Lt. Gov.) during a public forum on Monday evening by dismissing the complexity of combat decision-making as somehow less than other forms of decision-making.
Brahms and Connor have both been to war.
Richter – who was draft-age during the Vietnam War – has not.
Veterans like Marine Gene Wilbur are calling for Richter to withdraw from the race (see here).
See our earlier story here.
– Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. at uswriter.com.
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