by hilzoy
From the NYT:
“Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, who commanded detention operations at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and helped organize the interrogation process at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, retired from the military on Monday, Pentagon officials said. (…)
At his retirement ceremony Monday, General Miller received the Distinguished Service Medal, which is awarded for exceptionally commendable service in a position of great responsibility, Army officials said.”
From the Code of Federal Regulations:
“The Distinguished Service Medal, established by Act of Congress on July 9, 1918, is awarded to any person who, while serving in any capacity with the Army of the United States, shall have distinguished himself or herself by exceptionally meritorious service to the Government in a duty of great responsibility (Fig. 1). The performance must be such as to merit recognition for service which is clearly exceptional. Superior performance of normal duty will not alone justify an award of this decoration.”
From Montesquieu’s Spirit of Laws, on the corruption of the principle of monarchy, which is honour:
“The principle of monarchy is corrupted when the first dignities are marks of the first servitude…
It is still more corrupted when honour is set up in contradiction to honours, and when men are capable of being loaded at the very same time with infamy and with dignities.”
And I thought that the Death Of Irony was Henry Kissinger getting the Nobel Peace Prize!
I’m…. “exceptionally meritorious service to the Government in a duty of great responsibility”… well, the Bush administration is honest, not hypocritical.
“Decent shame” has meaning.
(BTW, can you possibly put the pics below the fold?)
couldn’t they have just given him a medal of freedom? at least that honour has already been debased.
A few bad apples, some with medals.
This is the price for our liberty and freedom.
Can’t you that!?
GreginOz,
Hopefully this won’t have the same effect as Kissinger’s prize did (causing Tom Lehrer to retire, claiming satire was now impossible). It would be a shame if Jon Stewart felt the same in response to this news.
Distinguished Service Medal Leashes: the new Purple Heart Band Aids. So which party is sapping the morale of the troops again?
I put the pictures below the fold.
Wow, thanks for ruining my morning with that news, Hilzoy!
Haven’t given up hoping to see Miller behind bars one day ….
At least I got to quote Montesquieu, which I always love to do.
Grade Inflation
Look who just won a Distinguished Service Medal from the US Army?
And I can’t think of a more deserving person, either.
Perhaps the medal should come with a free trip to The Hague?
One way.
Dantheman, well it certainly won’t cause Stephen Colbert to retire. Now there is a great interview…Geoffrey Miller & Colbert…BOO HAR…oh the pain, oh the pain..
Service Charter
FSANZs role, in collaboration with others, is to protect the The Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is an independent bi na…