Sipsey Street Exclusive: Some unvarnished comments on the current USMC command scandal

Retired Marine "Disgusted Devil Dog" comments on my earlier post on "Marine Corps whistleblower faces vengeance from superiors." This is the unvarnished truth.

Today's headlines on the Gen. Amos' firing two Marine generals have pushed from the front pages the media spotlight on his own serious problems involving his personal, blatantly illegal command influence in the case of a few Marines urinating on some Taliban corpses.

(Why Amos did not allow this case to be handled by non-judicial punishment at the battalion level is a question that we can only hope future historians of the Corps' time in Afghanistan will answer. Perhaps Amos' action was effected by the fact that his only experience with ground combat is what he's read in the Corps' required-reading history books, or heard around the bar at happy hour.)

Feeling full of his self-induced hubris, Amos then compounded his egregious misconduct in the peeing case with especially flagrant (and also illegal) retaliation against a stand-up Marine lawyer who blew the whistle on Amos' felonious intervention in the stinky battlefield incident.

A very reliable source with a demonstrated record in many years of previous reporting, told this writer that based on his own direct observation, Amos had pulled similar stunts in legal cases as a major general.

It must have worked, since Amos has been promoted twice since these previous illegal actions.

And, since Amos is both a well-known butt boy to the Secretary of the Navy, and an especially obsequious sycophant to key White House staffers, don't expect any accountability for his latest round of illegal manipulation of the Marine Corps' justice system.

Facing outcries over the government shut down, Obamacare, the debt limit, etc., the Potomac elite will be far too busy dodging their own accountability. They won't have time, interest or energy for something as mundane as illegally influencing the military justice system.

Those few who are paying attention to military matters are focused on finding some magic -- and utopian -- solution to sexual misconduct in the ranks (as they plot to greatly expand the numbers of hormone-driven 18-year olds placed into intimate proximity... go figure).

According to another reliable source, Amos has not even deigned to accept any conversation with, much less guidance from, the community of retired Commandants. Indeed, he has set new standards for his imperious isolation from these wily veterans of Pentagon intrigue who know a few things about how this town operates, and who has their hands on the key levers of power.

But in his defense, I have to admit that Amos knows Washington well enough by now to know that as long as he plays the complete toady to his political-hack masters, the Teflon shield they have loaned him will continue to be 100% effective.

(It's worth noting that neither the Commandant, nor the Assistant Commandant, wear the Combat Action Ribbon. After nearly 12 years of active ground combat operations, the two senior generals at HQMC have not met even the minimal qualifications for the CAR. Any wonder that the level of "generalship" is at historically mediocre levels?)

Disgusted Devil Dog

Roger G. Charles

LtCol, USMC (Ret.)