No excuse, Sir.

I've been feeling bad lately--even while in Vegas (although I did hide it pretty well.)

It's a weird pain--mostly stabbing/aching in my back beneath my scapula and around my right side ribs.  Been trying to medicate, sleep, and electrocute the pain away, but to no avail. Which doesn't explain why I forgot about today.

241 Good Men Died On this day, in 1983.  John has a great post about it at the castle.

From his comments section:

I was on Mid-watch that night, when all the alarms, bells and whistles started sounding all over the Embassy.  I called in the alert team and after a few minutes, one of the commo techs came downstairs and told me what had happened.

Using my initiative as a young Marine NCO, I promptly marched up to the Ambassadors balcony and raised our Flag to half-mast.  Yeah, I jumped the gun, but I made a command decision to do it.

What really irks me about this murder of my fellow Marines, was that NO ONE was ever held accountable.  Not one of the State Dept weenies and/or military officers  whose idiotic ROE and failure to complete security barriers ever suffered a whit as far as I can tell.

Foolish as the policy on being in Lebanon was in the first place, IMHO, it was criminal negligence that directly resulted in the deaths of my fellow Marines and our Corpsmen.

Where was and is the accountability?

And yes, the same can be said for what is currently happening in Afghanistan.

  I've never been to Afghanistan, so I can't comment on that.  I was all of eleven years old when it happened, but some things are still true--if you lack the WILL to use overwhelming force and ferocity to retaliate against your enemies and those who support them, you will never stop them from attacking you.  Policies which the soldier perceives as inhibiting his ability to do his mission, do inhibit his ability to do his mission.  Perception being truth applies here, because if the soldier feels hamstrung by ROE, then he begins to doubt if his leaders, and their leaders, care more about him than they care about the perception of the public and his enemy.


I personally feel like there are politicians on both sides of the aisle, who (then and now) would gladly step on my throat if it would get them another term in office (or another five votes, even).


But I digress.


241 Marines died on this day, serving the country they loved.


And I cannot convey in words my personal feelings about this ruling, or the person against whom it was lodged.

MAJ Charles Ziegenfuss, student, Staff Group 21B, Command and General Staff College, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, KS.  The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.