That's just a personal opinion. This thread was started to try and point out Boxer's flaws but in reality, the General seems like the idiot here. She was right, he was wrong and kind of stupid besides. I don't really care one way or the other for the General or the Senator but when the Right wingers want to twist an issue into something that it is not purely for political points, I will challenge their interpretation every time not help them.
The General would probably be happy to meet you, because with that opinion, you truly are an army of one.
We must be at the personal sniping stage of this thread. I usually lose interest at this point and let you and Tom, or you and Craig, or you and, well, anybody just snipe at each other until your egos feel better. I'm sure that General Walsh is a fine person who was just a little slow one day. None of that changes his lack of military protocol.
How do you consider my post sniping? It was a joke using one of the Army's previous recruiting slogans "Army of One". And it is factual that everybody else disagrees with you on this subject. Lighten up for Pete's sake! BTW, your knowledge of military protocol is from a book you found online. The General has been practicing this protocol for many years in the military. If he thought it was acceptable to address a Senator as "Ma'am", I will defer to his expertise. Perhaps you should consider doing the same lest you appear to be an egotistical windbag. Now that is sniping. Have a good day riding your high horse out of this thread.
So now you're doubting the military's own published manual of protocol to defend the military. I gotta give your credit for some pretty creative intellectual acrobatics on this one. It would be very easy for you to verify the authenticity of the manual if you actually tried to do so. Go directly to your favorite trusted source and prove to me that my source is invalid or just contuinue the highwire act. It almost as if you believe that anyone in the military is incapable of making a mistake.
I am not mired in academia like you. I trust experience over what the book says any day of the week. My source is the conduct of a General in the US Army. Your source is a manual for which you have no frame of reference. That manual appears to be for social situations. Perhaps there is another manual that states it is appropriate to address Senators as "Sir" or "Ma'am". I don't know, you don't know, but I assume that a General does. And if you think the military is so capable of making a mistake, then it seems perfectly reasonable that there could be two different manuals with different sets of protocols for the same situation. So you keep hugging that manual, and I will defer to the judgement of someone who managed to rise to the very top of his chosen field.
Levin and McCain have to be seriously pissed at this testimony. http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...ir&cd=12&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a Look at all those Sirs. Or maybe they just aren't whiny jackasses. In reality, I suspect most Generals (or other military personnel) in a Senate setting use Senator, Sir, Ma'am pretty interchangeably.
It is either that or Moen really does know more about military protocol than the Generals in our armed forces. I'm ready to vote!
The manual and reality in the military are more often than not two different things. Ask anyone who's been through basic training, and then went into the "real" military if they do the things they were taught in basic. I serve on a base that houses operational and training commands. When I drive through the training areas, my blue sticker is saluted religiously. Not so in the operational areas. As I said in my earlier post, I don't call my CO "Colonel Smith" to his face. I call him "sir" unless I'm talking about him (i.e. "Colonel Smith wants that report tomorrow morning."). I might be able to get away once or twice calling him Colonel Smith to his face , but if I continue to do it, then the XO calls me into his office and tells me to stop disrespecting the CO. (Heck, I've had NCOs yell at their subordinates for referring to me by my rank. "He's the Chaplain, darn it. (or language to that effect.)").
I don't see why Boxer didn't just let it slide. But, she's a narcissist with a superiority complex and an elitist attitude so I suppose it makes sense. Unfortunately, her current title isn't "Former Senator Boxer"....