Who Intentionally Breached the Levees? As If We Don't Know.

With all the concern over terrorism, one would think Homeland Security would be hysterically assigning a TSA agent to every home, public and private restroom, tollbooth, automobile, etc. within a 1000 mile radious of the Missouri River. But, no. Not a peep from our terror mongers.

No one seems all that concerned as they celebrate July 4th, glued to their televisions watching the Casey Anthony trial (I thought the courts closed down for July 4th, no?). Yet, some strange individual or entity is supposedly, blowing up the levee(s) in Pottawattamie County. That's right, officials said they received calls from people wanting to know why levees were being blown up. One caller claimed to have witnessed the explosion of the Vanmann No. 30 levee.

"Pottawattamie County officials said no government entity had anything to do with the detonation, and they did not have advance notice from the people responsible for the breach....The general stressed that he has not yet made the ultimate decision on activating the Birds Point-New Madird Floodway".

Now, here's the thing.  The Wall Street Journal reported, on April 30, of this year that the appeals court granted permision to the Army Corp of Engineers to explode levees, rejecting a request from the Missouri attorney general to stop the process.

And, apparently, the Army Corp of Engineers does not have to give notice. Some of these families, like that of Donald Brothers' family, dating back to 1865, will lose their homes and farmland, and lilihood. It's not as if they purchased these homes, knowing what was in store.

Intentional breaching of the Bird's Point Levee on May 2, 2011



Looks like damage control to me. On behalf of whom? Well, aside from the federal government, insurance companies, for one.

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Army Prosecutes Single Mom for Refusing to Put Her Son in Foster Care.

Spc. Alexis Hutchinson believed she had a care plan in place and she did everything that the military required when faced with such an unexpected problem. There are reasonable alternatives which the Army can pursue such as giving her a hardship discharge, or assigning her stateside where she could care for her child. An Army spokesman did say the Army would not deploy a single parent with no one to care for his or her child. For the innocent child's sake, let's hope that's true.

Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, a 21-year-old Army cook, refused to deploy to Afghanistan in November because she had no one to take care of her 10-month-old son. Hutchinson said when she brought her situation to her superiors’ attention, they told her that she would have to deploy anyway and place the child in foster care. “For her it was like, ‘I couldn’t abandon my child,’” her civilian attorney Rai Sue Sussman told the AP. After skipping her unit’s flight out of Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, GA, millitary police arrested her and confined her to the base while prosecutors decided how to proceed. Today, the Army filed charges against her and, if convicted in a court-martial, she faces several years in prison and a dishonorable discharge:

A spokesman for Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah said Wednesday that Hutchinson has been charged with missing movement — for missing her overseas flight — being absent without leave, dereliction of duty and insubordinate conduct.

The stiffest charge, missing movement, carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a dishonorable discharge. … But first, an officer will be appointed to decide if there’s enough evidence to try a case against her

There are 70,500 single parents on active duty in the U.S. military, but cases like Hutchinson’s are “rare.” The Army requires all single-parent soldiers to submit a care plan for dependent children before they can deploy to a combat zone. Hutchinson had such a plan; her mother had agreed to care for the boy but became “overwhelmed” caring for three other relatives and decided she couldn’t keep the baby for a full year. An Army spokesman said the Army would not deploy a single parent with no one to care for his or her child.

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A Matter of Honor

Captain Ian Fishback eloquently stated, in a letter he wrote to Senator John McCain, his reasons why consistent and clearly defined standards are needed to eliminate confusion for soldiers on what is considered acceptable and non-acceptable behavior during war time. He believes the wide range of abuses that occurred in Iraq would not have happened if standards morally consistent with the Constitution and justice in war were understandable and free from ambiguity.

I believe this is a good follow up to my post on bullying because children need a strong moral foundation built on the "golden rule" of respecting others as you respect yourself. This is one area where we can't afford the luxury of ambiguity or thinking in the gray as that will only confuse children. Clear lines must be drawn and appropriate discipline is required so that our children understand how they should treat others.

"Give them a clear standard that is in accordance with the bedrock principles of our nation." -- Captain Ian Fishbeck, 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina

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