{"id":4990,"date":"2003-11-18T20:37:14","date_gmt":"2003-11-19T03:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=4990"},"modified":"2003-11-18T20:37:14","modified_gmt":"2003-11-19T03:37:14","slug":"expediency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/11\/18\/expediency.html","title":{"rendered":"Expediency"},"content":{"rendered":"

While eschewing Scott’s obligatory Evil Warmongering Cowardly Dubya rhetoric, I have to agree with him<\/a> that it’s disgusting that the National Guard would go ahead and deploy troops overseas to Iraq who tested positive for drug use<\/a>, despite the Army’s “zero tolerance” policy. I certainly can’t support illegal drug use, but a policy touted with such moral righteousness during peacetime in order to winnow out the unfit and scofflaws shouldn’t hardly be set aside in wartime.<\/p>\n

And in response to the idea that at least some of these guys were doing drugs in order to avoid deployment — well, screw ’em. Forget about the dishonorable discharge — throw in some serious brig time for both drug use and dereliction of duty in wartime, and show that it’s not behavior that’s “rewarded.” <\/p>\n

The Guard’s actions here comes across as highly cynical — especially as there are plans to prosecute the offenders after <\/i>they return from Iraq. The cynicism can only be increased by statements like this, from a Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, spokesperson:<\/p>\n

A positive on their drug test is not going to keep them here, unless there’s a dependency issue. These units have to have so many people to go overseas.<\/p>\n

If it makes ’em unfit in peacetime, it makes ’em unfit in wartime, quotas or not. And if it doesn’t, then change the policy, and don’t file charges after <\/i>they’ve done their service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While eschewing Scott’s obligatory Evil Warmongering Cowardly Dubya rhetoric, I have to agree with him that it’s disgusting that the National Guard would go ahead and deploy troops overseas to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27476,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/20\/you-cant-arrest-your-way-out-of-the-drug-problem.html","url_meta":{"origin":4990,"position":0},"title":"You can't arrest your way out of the drug problem","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 20-Apr-12 6:10am","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, I suppose you can, if you're willing to spend huge amounts of money an incarcerate a massive percentage of your population, many of them for non-violent drug offenses.Oh, wait, that's what we've been doing, and, hey, we still have drug problems. Imagine that.If this represents a new, serious policy,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32549,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/22\/is-honesty-the-best-policy-when-it-comes-to-talking-about-drugs-with-kids.html","url_meta":{"origin":4990,"position":1},"title":"Is honesty the best policy when it comes to talking about drugs with kids?","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 22-Feb-13 11:18am","format":false,"excerpt":"Is honesty the best policy when it comes to talking about drugs with kids?Well, from this description of the study, it's hard to tell. \u00a0It seems that kids who report a more positive attitude toward drug use are correlated with having heard from their parents about their own past drug\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":793,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/14\/im_just_followi.html","url_meta":{"origin":4990,"position":2},"title":"I’m just following orders, folks!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 14-Nov-01 3:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The military says that telecommuting is good. In wartime, wouldn't it be unpatriotic to ignore such advice? Work in your bath robe ... for Victory! (Via Blather)...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3965,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/03\/05\/the_dogs_of_war.html","url_meta":{"origin":4990,"position":3},"title":"The Dogs of War","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Mar-03 6:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Not to mention the Sea Lions, Camels, and Chickens of War. This is an interesting article about animals used in wartime, and the plans for their use in Iraq --...","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1571,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/12\/08\/friendly_fire.html","url_meta":{"origin":4990,"position":4},"title":"Friendly Fire","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 8-Dec-01 5:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Jerry Pournelle has an interesting take on the friendly fire deaths earlier this week. His conclusion: this isn't a matter of inevitable errors in wartime, but a matter of interservice...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4094,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/02\/06\/enforcement_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":4990,"position":5},"title":"Enforcement","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 6-Feb-03 11:56am","format":false,"excerpt":"Some good observations here on the war on drugs, to wit, the DEA claiming success because it's changed the rules by which success is measured. At one point, the DEA's...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4990\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}