Originally Posted by rickair7777;
I wasn't talking about the vaccination issue, rather the disciplinary stick vs carrot balance in general. Granting ill-behaved SM's generous VA bennies will force the mil to assign more draconian punishments and bad paper to discourage ill behavior.
Partially agree. Yet another reason not to issue stupid orders because you do tempt the lawmakers to get involved. When this Congress convened, it had the lowest number of veterans since at least the start of WWII.
Here’s a look at the group, by the numbers:
• 91 total veterans in the 117th Congress.
• 17 serve in the Senate, 74 serve in the House.
• 28 are Democrats, 63 are Republicans.
As with many other issues, few politicians actually have the background to understand some of the decisions they are making or the forbearance not to cast a vote without researching it or consulting with more knowledgeable others.
The need to shift some discipline from NJP to CM would stress the system a little but it could certainly adapt.
Not without a serious change in the UCMJ which would require the action of the same Congress who increasingly lack understanding of the military. Changing the UCMJ in a more dogmatic and mission focused direction seems improbable at best. Recent Congressional actions seem to be going the other way:
https://www.nawj.org/blog/newsroom/p...h-the-new-year
And from my three experiences on CM Boards, the current system is exceedingly manpower intensive and logistically incapable of being upscaled substantially, and that as much as anything leads to NJP. You simply can’t AFFORD to broadly apply courts martial. Article 15 is the military equivalent of plea bargaining. It permits the military to function without the unsustainable overhead of every infraction going to CM. But like plea bargaining, it requires the accused to ACCEPT the deal. Offering an Article 15 and having the accused refuse it pretty well forces you to go to CM. Losing after taking someone to CM undermines the chain of command even more.
Bottom-line, another half-cocked congressional intervention.
Absolutely, and as the military experience level in Congress continues to decline, doing things like issuing stupid orders make such interventions far more likely than convincing Congress to streamline the UCMJ system.