Two things in particular disturbed me about Gen. Kelly's speech today.
First, as a military kid, I remember a whole lot about the mindset of military officers. They idealize the country, the cause, the soldiers and the commanders. Gen. Kelly is the old school general who believes it's all sacred and they're all good even when he knows better. Knowing and believing are remarkably two different things.
But what disturbed me was, first, his egregious and personal attack on Congresswoman Wilson. He not only was outraged at her "listening in" on a call that it was many times said was on a speaker phone and that by all reports he listened in on himself, he went back to an earlier event and impugned her character. It was an event that had nothing to do with this situation, he just wanted to make her look bad.
The second was that litany about women and religion having been sacred in the Good Old Days. His idea of women being sacred clearly means kept in our places, denied rights, put on the prison of a pedestal and having no power over our own lives. His idea of religion being sacred clearly means good old Judeo-Christian mores, which we all know includes a whole lot of exclusion, abuse, and tribalism.
I think military commanders have to live under a certain amount of delusion in order to be able to do the unthinkable, to fight absurd wars without question and to send young men and women to die, sometimes for a good cause, sometimes for nothing.
I appreciated his eloquent descriptions and am sorry for his pain. But he's using it to perpetuate things that shouldn't be perpetuated and shoring up a man in whom he should be deeply, deeply ashamed.
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