Once again an off-base incident in Okinawa caused by an off-duty, intoxicated sailor has caused the admiral who commands all U.S. Naval Forces throughout the islands to go overboard and punish the entire force for the transgressions of one person. Petty Officer Aimee Mejia caused a three-car wreck by driving the wrong way on a freeway while apparently alcohol impaired. For that offense by a single sailor, 18,600 of her shipmates have been restricted to their bases and forbidden from consuming alcohol, on or off base, for an indeterminate period. Rear Admiral Matthew Carter, Chief of Naval Forces, Japan issued that draconian edict on Monday as a sop to both his politically correct superiors and the government of Japan.
Let’s call this overkill punishment what it is, a hastily-issued form of apology to mitigate any demonstrations that are sure to be mounted by the leftist, anti-U.S., Japanese political factions that never miss an excuse to demand that all U.S. forces be withdrawn from their country. Rather than throw the book at the offending sailor in a very public courts-martial while simultaneously generously compensating the Japanese parties involved in the incident for injuries and damages, no, we punish nearly 20,000 innocent American citizens who did nothing, just to demonstrate our sincerity and determination.
Yeah, right, Admiral Carter, like you and the rest of us all know full well, locking up thousands of sailors and denying them adult beverages for long enough to constitute what you consider a satisfactory penance is certain to prevent incidents like this in the future. It’s not like it’s a fact of life that navies are made up of young people and young people have a proclivity to drink to excess and sometimes operate motor vehicles when they shouldn’t. But you, instead of punishing the few who transgress, are going to make your entire command pay just so you can make the grand gesture. That gesture, by the way, is most assuredly soon to be criticized by the Japanese themselves as this grounding of our troops plays holy hell with their local economies.
Then there’s the matter of troop morale and retention, Admiral Carter. How many first-time enlistees who have been subjected to your whimsical ability to make their lives suddenly miserable just to satisfy your own mea culpa, are going think back on that experience when weighing the pros and cons of reenlisting? Mass punishment is effective only as long as it is in effect. As soon as it’s lifted the irresponsible sailors in your force will go right back to being so perhaps with even more zeal built up during their restraint. Your responsible sailors will go on being so, just as they always do but with less respect for your leadership because, unlike you, they know that mass punishment is damned well unfair and employed only by unimaginative leaders who, not knowing what else to do, resort to meaningless gestures.
In the matter of apologies and mass punishment, a commenter at another site suggested that every time an illegal Mexican national gets picked up in a drunk driving accident in this country, that we arrest a thousand other illegal Mexican nationals and imprison them for an indeterminate period, only releasing them back to their native country when the Mexican president publicly apologizes to the people of America for the one drunk’s bad behavior. At the rate Mexican illegals get arrested for drunk driving and causing accidents when driving impaired, it wouldn’t be too long before millions of them were either in jail or back in Mexico. California alone would probably be incarcerating a million per week with Texas not far behind. And unlike with sailors, if you locked up that many illegal Mexicans, the crime rates would drop dramatically.
See, Admiral Carter? That idea makes about as much sense as your mass punishment does. You know, if it’s just a high level apology you need, there’s a guy in Washington who just loves…
Crossposted at American Thinker.
