{"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_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_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":135197,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/27\/just-say-no-silly-drug-epidemic-stunts.html","url_meta":{"origin":4990,"position":1},"title":"“Just Say No” to silly drug epidemic stunts","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 27-Oct-17 7:13am","format":false,"excerpt":"We'll leave aside that when there have been opioid \/ heroin epidemics in the past which have only impacted poor populations and People of Color, that the outcry from the White House has not been \"We must do something to cure these poor beknighted souls\" but \"We must declare a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/unnamed-13.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"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":2},"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":133666,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/06\/13\/jeff-sessions-considers-prosecuting-medical-marijuana-a-high-priority.html","url_meta":{"origin":4990,"position":3},"title":"Jeff Sessions considers prosecuting medical marijuana a high priority","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 13-Jun-17 2:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"High enough (so to speak) that he wrote to congress in the wake of the renewal of the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment (which withholds funding from the Dept. of Justice for investigating or prosecuting medical marijuana in states where it is legal) decrying the whole thing.'I believe it would be unwise for\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":133256,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/11\/if-you-cant-take-care-of-the-little-things.html","url_meta":{"origin":4990,"position":4},"title":"If you can't take care of the little things","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 11-Apr-17 10:29pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As major American institutions and critical bits of national governance, the White House Easter Egg Roll is hardly up there with wartime decisions, fiscal policy, or promoting the general welfare.And yet, as a century-plus institution, it's a tradition that one would expect the White House to be able to plan\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":5},"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":[]}],"_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}]}}