The glacial pace of a wartime Pentagon

Yonathan Melaku was formally separated from the USMC today with his own cooperation. Without his cooperation, it could never have happened so "quickly." Ten days ago, he was arrested for inflicting a major scare on the Pentagon. Let's see: bombing materials, sniping at the Pentagon building, "acting suspiciously before dawn in the national cemetery," four counts of grand larceny, firearm violations, and more. The Marines say Melaku's attack on the Pentagon and any bombing of Arlington or the Iwo Jima memorial "had no bearing on the Marine Corps' initial determination to pursue the administrative separation process."

War is hell, isn't it? Especially when waged by a peacetime military.

One day in the early 1970s our company clerk arrived at work in a new car pulling a new trailer which contained within a new color TV. We gave him two hours to return the credit purchases or face court martial.

The same year, a soldier in our unit came back from a beach vacation with sunburn so painful that his duty had to be limited after a doctor's visit. We gave him the choice of non-judicial punishment or a court martial.

Another soldier returned from leave with a tattoo. He was simply thrown out of the Army. It might have taken two weeks at most.

It was a less forgiving time, I guess.

Now what will you bet that Melaku was given an honorable discharge?