How responsible are senior government officials in situations like this?
I first heard about this tragic news yesterday. You can read about it here - S.Korean media want minister out over DMZ shooting.
My heart goes out to the families of the Soldiers involved.
The reason cited for this attack was verbal abuse from senior Soldiers. Now, verbal abuse happens to greater and lesser degrees in all the military workplaces I've encountered. It can be as little as wisecracks or jokes. It can quickly escalate up to and beyond the point of a group insulting and picking on the same target over and over. I'm not necessarily condoning it, but I'm admitting that it happens and there is some level that is accepted, generally, inside the military.
Now, the military does have a policy about verbal abuse and/or emotional and psychological hazing. We receive training on a regular basis in order to uphold the Army's EO policy, to prevent sexual harassment, and also we receive something called Consideration Of Others (CO2) Training. We tell our Soldiers that it's not ok to pick on someone for being different. It's not ok to target them because they speak differently or have an accent or come from a specific area or are religious or any other type of thing from a long list of possiblities. The Army realizes that much of its strength comes from diversity. When we appreciate the fact that each of us can be different, and yet, wear the same uniform and more importantly act in a uniform manner, we are stronger. It's up to the leaders, at all levels to make sure we do this.
This brings me to the point of my subtitle and also something that is touched on in the linked article. How responsible is the Secretary of Defense (or Minister of National Defense in the case of Korea) in cases like this? If senior leaders enact policy and push it on junior leaders, is that enough?
While the Korean Army does business differently, I do know that there has been a push over the past years for a reduction in hazing in their own ranks. Now if the policy is set, is the Minister responsible for individual breakdowns? Whether that breakdown is on the junior leaders for not enforcing the policy or the individual who had his feelings hurt acting out in a violent and deadly way? Obviously, there was some breakdown here. But is that breakdown a failure on the part of the Minister of National Defense? Would a similar situation in our Army be the ultimate responsibility of Donald Rumsfeld? And would people be calling for his resignation? I know the answer.
In this case, I don't believe that the Minister should resign. He's apologized and accepted responsiblity. He has initiated an investigation to get to the heart of the matter and find out where the breakdown was.
I do find it distasteful that the minority party in Korea (conservatives, to boot - and for those that don't know me well, I do lean towards conservative, myself) is making this a political issue and attempting to not only discredit the Minister, but also the majority party and the Korean president. This is a horrible tragedy and emotionally charged. I'm not trying to minimize what happened. I just think it's terrible that people would try to score political gain out of it.
There is a memorial to the fallen Soldiers here - ³ÊÈñ °¡´Â±æ ²É´«¹°·Î ¹è¿õÇØ ÁÙ°Ô. That roughly translates to "We'll send you off on your road with the tears of flowers". The page is in Korean, but the pictures are significant by themselves.
I hope that the Soldiers rest in peace and the families are able to find peace someday.
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