EDITOR:

During the first few weeks of my Army basic training, after a typically long, hard day, I was dog-tired. In a moment of poor judgment I failed to secure my weapon inside my sleeping bag with me, as instructed. Instead I placed it between the edge of my bag and my air mattress, for the sake of comfort

Sometime during the night a drill sergeant reached into my two-man tent and relieved me of my weapon. I never twitched an eyelash. When morning came I knew what had happened, and what I had to do. Convinced of my own impending doom, I approached the sergeants tent to report my weapon missing.

Back at our barracks days later, as further punishment, I was issued a plastic replica M-16 that I was to keep with me at all times for two weeks; in the mess hall, the latrine, the shower and, of course, in bed. The other trainees knew better than to laugh at me. They were taking the training right along with me. If I had been a soldier in war instead of just a trainee my weapon could have been used to kill my tentmate.

In Afghanistan this month we weren’t relieved of our weapons, we abandoned them! Tens of billions of dollars worth of American weaponry, vehicles and hardware will now be deployed by the Taliban against innocent Afghans, or sold to other terrorists for use against the West. If we couldn’t take it with us we should have blown it all up!

We all know there will never be any real accountability for this. Therefore I suggest that, at minimum, our top military and executive branch leadership should be made to carry plastic weapons in public for the rest of their lives as a symbol of their impotence and incompetence. Then again, I question whether simple incompetence can fully explain this reckless blunder.

Kenneth LaMarche

Escanaba