rssUnexpected Culprit in Ft. Hood Attack: Automatic Promotions
Friday, January 15, 2010 at 8:53 am
- 10 Comments
The commission Defense Secretary Robert Gates appointed to investigate how the Army failed to notice the radicalization of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged gunman at Fort Hood, has apparently taken a very structural examination of the failure. Look at this portion of its assessment:
As Hasan’s training progressed, his strident views on Islam became more pronounced as did worries about his competence as a medical professional. Yet his superiors continued to give him positive performance evaluations that kept him moving through the ranks and led to his eventual assignment at Fort Hood.
Recent statistics show the Army rarely blocks junior officers from promotion, especially in the medical corps.
In recent years there’s been a fair amount of grumbling in Army reformist circles that too many underqualified officers are pushed up the ranks. Usually that’s come in the context of wartime exhaustion, as the Army needs to retain its junior-to-mid-level officers to keep functioning, and the way to do that is through de facto automatic promotion. (Or, put differently, you have to seriously mess up not to be bumped upward.) It’s not clear that’s what happened in Hasan’s case, but the problem is nevertheless structural. If the default position of the Army is to promote, particularly in needed specialties like the medical corps, superiors are unlikely to pay sufficient attentions to warning signs like Hasan’s increasingly anti-American rhetoric.
Apparently as many as eight officers could be disciplined over the Hasan case. The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing about the commission’s report next Thursday.
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10 Comments
Comment posted January 15, 2010 @ 9:43 am
Outrageous incompetency by the Defense! They escorted this hate-filled terrorist AND paid and promoted him! Why is a military medical person allowed to wear the garb of the enemy terrorist spewing their rhetoric and still remain in a perfect position of endangering Americans???
The Patriot Act is supposedly in place to protect us yet this can happen as well as the underwear terrorist while on a terrorist list! Secret wiretapping, cameras, TSA, online monitoring, etc. on regular American citizens and these cases get under the radar and are permitted to occur? HOW? WHY?
Comment posted January 15, 2010 @ 10:34 am
@frankleigh
Hmm.. I think I can remember something about religious & political freedom being major points of the US Constitution. They're “allowed” to do that for same reason that you are “allowed” to spew your closed-minded fanatical Christian venom. These things happen and the conservatives take full advantage of it so they can scare people like you into doing exactly what they know you will do: unite with them under a banner of HATE & INTOLERANCE for Muslims; which just empowers their agenda of greed. Or do you think that only Muslims are taught hate for other peoples & religions? You are terrifyingly naive. Wake-up America!
Comment posted January 15, 2010 @ 11:33 am
Maybe the PATRIOT Act isn't actually designed to protect the country…
Comment posted January 15, 2010 @ 11:42 am
I recall reading a few years back that the Army was experiencing a loss of junior officers. TheNYT did a story on it in 2006. Yet another level of blowback?
Comment posted January 15, 2010 @ 12:29 pm
What lots of us don't understand is that the Army has been doing this sort of thing for some time, now. The shortage of troops just underscores the need for “instant” promotions. Hasan wasn't the only one promoted in this way. There are many incompetent officers in our military that have been “pushed up” the ranks in this way.
Conversely, what is perplexing is the survival of the “don't ask, don't tell” policy.
While we all wave the banners of supporting the troops, this disparity just advances the statement into a question: “What do we REALLY support here?”
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Comment posted January 21, 2010 @ 10:34 am
It is clear the Military is desperate to keep Medical semi-pros because many of these quacks can make a ton more money on the outside. The main advantage to a Medicall professional staying in the Military is to pay off their student loans. Once that is done few good ones are willing to stay.
Comment posted January 25, 2010 @ 12:50 am
I see YOU are brainwashed. I am awake. Why not invite all these sneaky Muslim terrorists to your house? Go to their “places of worship” (meeting places) and hide in garb and see what they really think. There was clear evidence that this man (from his own mouth) was struggling with his alliance issues. He wore the garb of a terrorist and IS a terrorist. He was permitted–and paid–to roam free with his perceived enemy armed and dangerous! Wake Up!
Comment posted January 25, 2010 @ 5:50 am
I see YOU are brainwashed. I am awake. Why not invite all these sneaky Muslim terrorists to your house? Go to their “places of worship” (meeting places) and hide in garb and see what they really think. There was clear evidence that this man (from his own mouth) was struggling with his alliance issues. He wore the garb of a terrorist and IS a terrorist. He was permitted–and paid–to roam free with his perceived enemy armed and dangerous! Wake Up!
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