The Army recently announced that it has fired or suspended 14 officers and enlisted soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas and ordered policy changes to address chronic leadership failures at the base that contributed to a widespread pattern of violence, including murder, sexual assaults, and harassment.
Two general officers were among those removed from their jobs following the findings of an independent panel's investigation into problems at the base, including major flaws in the reporting and response to sexual assault and harassment allegations.
Bob Maginnis, senior fellow for national security at the Family Research Council, says the most experienced people were not the ones who handled the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) cases.
Maginnis
"They were junior people. The experienced people were not involved in doing those investigations," he laments. "As a direct result, they were not done with the vigor and the type of detail that's necessary, that a big city criminal investigation division would conduct."
Maginnis believes the removal of the 14 people sends a clear message that misconduct will not be tolerated in the U.S. Army.
"There are some systemic issues here -- CID investigations not being done aggressively as they should, commanders at all levels not overseeing the climate allowed certain misconducts to continue," the analyst lists. "Time will tell exactly what is going to be the outcome other than the firings."
President Joe Biden promised voters he would tackle the coronavirus pandemic better than Donald Trump, whom Democrats accused of being responsible for 400,000 deaths to date, but in the course of one day the new president snapped at a reporter over vaccine distribution and his new press secretary dodged a question about his mask-skipping hypocrisy.
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A national defense analyst says the recent violence at the country's biggest Army post is the result of a systemic leadership problem at the facility.
A national defense analyst agrees with the warning from a popular political commentator that the creation of a Diversity and Inclusion Board by the Pentagon is a recipe for disaster.