Stupidity Begets Stupidity

For better or worse, you can quit almost anything you join along life’s journey by simply walking away; jobs, school, teams, clubs, even marriage.  The key word here is almost anything.  The United States Military is conspicuously absent from this list.  Sure, you can walk away; however the repercussions are significant and tend to follow you around throughout life.  

It seems to me that most individuals that walk out on the military probably do so as a spur of the moment decision.  That would explain why we typically find deserters running to the home of their parents or girlfriend.  Obviously, both locations that find themselves at the very top of the list of those now on your trail.  

From the outside looking in, the key in a situation such as this has to be to step back and evaluate what good could possibly come from the decision, and then begin trying to limit the damage. What you need to do is change your state of mind to try and make the best of a bad situation.   At the other end of the spectrum are those that endeavor to make a bad situation even worse - sometimes much worse.  As is true with many mistakes, trying to cover up your crime is a really bad idea.  Trying to cover up your crime by extorting money from the U. S. Government is a really really bad idea. 

This life-lesson brings us to a young man that found himself facing a court-martial for desertion and obstruction of justice leading up to 22 years in prison. All because he just couldn’t stop himself from coming up with increasingly bad and ridiculous ideas.  His dubious plan unfolded along these lines:

Deserting the military and taking refuge in Mexico.  Bad idea.

Sending a text message to the military notifying them that he was gone because he had been kidnapped.  Really bad idea.

Claiming to be a Mexican drug cartel member and demanding $100,000 for his own safe return.  Really, Really bad idea.

To be honest, as a citizen, those capable of conceiving such a plan are exactly the individuals that I want deserting our military.  It’s not representative of the the kind of cognitive thinking abilities I prefer making life and death decisions.  In the end he was sentenced to three years in prison and dishonorably discharged,  probably much more reasonable than the 22 years he could have been sentenced.  After all, he appears to only be dangerous to himself, and then only when thinking.

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