By Sandrea: MY GRIPE:
The public humiliation of Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard, Canada’s top commander in Afghanistan, for an “inappropriate” relationship with a female soldier, was an unfortunate situation.
Given his rank and the number of years he had been in the army, I am sure that he was fully aware that having a relationship with a subordinate would cause him his career and the choice that he has made, in his moment of weakness was very unfortunate, which has now caused him public humiliation and must put in in an awkward situation with his family.
I understand that the arm forces have put these safe-guards in place to prevent high ranking officer from abusing their powers and using their rank to sexually abuse those that they command. However, the authority have to be prepared to take some of the blame for the actions of their officers.
These men and women are sent to God-forsaken corners of the world to fight for causes that in many cases have sod-all to do with them and they are doing so in the name of ‘freedon and democracy’, for people who, in many cases does not even willingly show their gratitude. Many have died in the line of duty, so it is not inconceivable that some where along the line you are going to find that some members of the arm forces will engage in relationship whilst posted abroad.
The authority would want to believe that they can asked these people to lay their lives on the lines and that they should do so like robots, well unfortunately they are not robotic, they are flesh and blood and there will come a time when they will succumb to the weakness of the flesh, or putting plainly they will want and need to have sex.
It is unrealistic to believe that you can put adults, male and females together in those close proximity and that there will not be any intimacy issues.
These people do not turn off their sexuality when they enlist as soldiers, and many of us, not been in the dessert with them cannot understand their plight and the reasons that they break the rules. We should not be so quick to judge individuals because they behave as human beings does, they are just that humans, susceptible to human frailties and a little bit of understand is needed here.
The public humiliation of this man, in my view was uncalled for, this situation could have been dealt with in a more diplomatic fashion, sparing his family the humiliation they have to endure. Because he make have commit the unthinkable did not mean that his family had to go through the humiliation in such a public way. It was an unfortunate situation and I am certain that Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard, is regretting that he made such a foolish decision.
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