Brickbat: Lending a Helping Hand

A four-star U.S. army general has been suspended and is now under investigation after Military.com reported he made concerted efforts to ensure a female lieutenant colonel passed an assessment board for battalion command. Gen. Charles Hamilton spent about a month lobbying officers on the board to pass her. When she failed, he got her a second panel two days later, something that sources told Military.com was unprecedented. She failed the second panel.

Comments

[Vernon Depner]

He'd probably been hassled about not promoting enough women.

[Stuck in California]

FIRST thing that came to my mind.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You complain about a glass ceiling. You complain about efforts to shatter that glass ceiling. MAKE UP YOUR MIND.

[mad.casual]

You can push them out of a plane. You can march them off a cliff. You can send them off to die on some God forsaken rock. But for some reason, you can't fail an assessment board for battalion command, twice, unprecedentedly quickly.

[Longtobefree]

You mean just being a woman wasn't enough?
Oh, right. Now you have to be a man pretending to be a woman to get the free ride.
Women are back to being just a woman.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

There's more than a colonel of truth to that.

[MoreFreedom]

I like the military's position that the general "inappropriately intervened in a service assessment panel's work".
Reminds me of people using their political connections to get letters of recommendations from politicians (a donation helps) to get their kid in a specific school, which is truly inappropriate intervention in college admissions. Or a politician ensures his child in the military isn't assigned to dangerous work. Same thing when a corporation hires a child of a politician who isn't qualified for a board seat - it's inappropriate.

What does all this have in common: it puts the political class above the rest of us, and it's unethical because politicians have too much control over our schools and universities (the right amount of control being no control and no funding - let the free market reign so we prosper).

[Don't look at me!]

What’s the point of being in government if you aren’t going to be “better” than everyone else?

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

What's the point of being better than everybody else if you don't go into government?

[mad.casual]

I like the military’s position that the general “inappropriately intervened in a service assessment panel’s work”.

The whole thing is hilarious several layers of retardation deep:
1. We aren’t lowering standards for women.
2. We are lowering standards for women but it’s not as prevalent as you think.
3. We are lowering standards for women and it’s as prevalent as you think, but it’s a good thing!
4. We are lowering standards for women and it’s as prevalent as you think and it’s a good thing, and we’re punishing the existing COC for doing it. <- You are here.

BTW- Between impugning brass for pointless bureaucracy violations and making the actual military look like more of a joke than G.I. Jane, did you know recruiting numbers are down?

[MWAocdoc]

So they deployed her to the Balkans to clear landmines ...