Regarding reports that members of the U.S. military participated in the Colombian prostitution scandal engulfing the Secret Service, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had this to say:
"We're embarrassed by what occurred in Colombia, though we're not sure exactly what it is, but what we do know is that we distracted — that several of our members distracted the issue from what was a very important regional engagement for our president. So we let the boss down, because nobody's talking about what went on in Colombia other than this incident."
In terms of sheer patheticness, this rivals General George Casey's concern, after 13 people were gunned down in cold blood at Fort Hood, that "diversity" might be the real "casualty" of the incident.
No, General Dempsey, if it is true that members of the military are implicated, the problem isn’t that it is a “distraction.” Call me stodgy, but I don't think that the main sin of those involved was stealing the spotlight from President Obama.
If immoral behavior is not enough to horrify you, General, there is this complication: such actions make alleged guilty parties vulnerable to blandishments of foreign spy agencies. Oh, and Ron Kessler says that the prostitutes may have been underage. Swell.
ABC has more details about the behavior of the Secret Service men involved in the scandal. No, General Dempsey, this is much more than “a distraction.”
Please don’t think for a moment that I am comparing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s innocent partying in Colombia to this scandal. She has a job that brings considerable tension, and perhaps that is why she decided to dance and imbibe the night away in Cartagena.
Just one question, though: Can you picture Dean Acheson behaving this way? Or, so I won’t be accused of being sexist, how about Condi Rice?
In other news, the Summit of the Americas, was a dismal failure, producing notthing other than party stories. The summit's signature achievement was that the leaders agreed all that the U.S. “war on drugs” has not been a success.
Couldn’t they have used GoToMeeting spared the expense and embarrassment?