This piece of crap got demoted to PFC a few weeks ago because he was writing anti-mission diatribes to his blog, Leonard Clark, National Guardsman. Thankfully the military stepped in as it should and shut his ass down along with the demotion, confinement to barracks, and some cash taken from his pocket.
Leonard Clark, an Arizona Army National Guardsman stationed in Iraq, paid a steep price for using a blog to share his overtly anti-war opinions ? he was demoted for putting American troops in danger.
But Clark, a 40-year-old kindergarten teacher, says officials went too far with their response. In an e-mail exchange with FOXNews.com, he said the military “indirectly outed” him by making the charges against him public, and now he fears his wife and daughter are in danger.
Any soldier know’s when you take the oath and sign on the dotted line that you are no longer a Civilian. You are property of the US Government. The military’s mission is already tough enough without some liberal piece of crap spreading anti-government attitudes through the unit and the blogosphere.
2Slick makes a good comparison:
This man is drawing a paycheck, and he’s expected to perform a service in return for getting paid. As a former member of his profession, I’m well aware of what that service entails. Duty, Honor, Country- I won’t bore you with the details.
Think of it in terms of football. Keyshawn Johnson wasn’t getting paid to simply catch the ball when it was thrown to him- he was getting paid to help win football games. That was the expectation when he was hired. He was paid handsomely for his services. But when he started mouthing off about how bad the coaching was and how miserable his job had become, he was in effect doing the opposite of helping to win games- he had become a distraction to the team, a burden on the coaching staff, and so his employers wisely decided to cut him loose. But that’s football. If they don’t win games, then oh well- there’s always next year.
What happens when Leonard’s anti-mission attitude and public denunciation of his own organization cause his unit to become distracted? Can they just suck it up, and hope for a better season next year? No. Unfortunately, when selfish publicity-seeking morons like Leonard infect an organization within the ranks of the military, they can certainly end up getting good people killed. It’s simply a matter of fact. His chain of command acted appropriately as far as I can discern, although I’d have probably been less tolerant if I were his commander. I’ll have to see how it all shakes out.
Add in the fact that he is planning on running for office:
They also believe his intention to run for U.S. Senate against Arizona Republican Sen. John Kyl landed him in trouble.
And you have the makings of a John Kerry wannabe, who figures if he joins the military and does some time in Iraq it will look good on his resume where he can run on a anti-Iraq platform.
It’s guys like these who believes that the his career is more important then his unit who will get soldiers killed. It’s also guys like these who will force the military to shut down all milblogs.
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