Rumsfeld's Pentagon Memo

NY Times Article. The only problem with the White House's story is that active duty Officers are *NOT* allowed to speak their mind publicly. There would be serious consequences to their career, some of which is legal, since the government owns active duty Officers.

In fact, it's in the best interest of those who are still active duty to play the game and play nice to the White House, because you never who what could happen to you if you don't. One thing about the military I didn't like was that they OWN YOU 24/7 ... LEGALLY. They own what you can say and do ... on and off the job. Basically by joining the military, you waive all rights given to U.S. citizens. It's a pretty big sacrifice. I was told by my superiors in the military that "Freedom isn't Free. You have to give up your freedom so that others may have it."

You are not free to speak your mind to the public until you are retired or discharged from the military. And even when you are discharged, you are given a DD 214 if you served less than 8 years. This means you can be recalled at any time even if you only signed for 4 years. It is not advantageous to speak your mind publicly but some do so because they believe very strongly in what they do and are willing to risk the consequences to do so.

Also there is the issue of how many Officers are in the Infantry division? There are a lot of other Officers in other branches who do not deal directly with combat and wouldn't have much to comment on in combat given their experience. Also how many Officers actually deal with Rumsfeld? Usually only the Generals in combat related fields work with Rumsfeld, lower Officers have to get their others from their proper chain of command.