We take a backseat to no one in deploring the effects that social media have on our culture. However, sometimes they provide people platforms to announce to the world that they possess dangerous and/or idiotic beliefs. This can be useful.
Such was the case of Second Lieutenant Spenser Rapone. It seems that Rapone thought that Twitter was the appropriate venue to send out photos of himself at his West Point graduation last year showing that he was wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt under his uniform and had the message “COMMUNISM WILL WIN” written under his cap. The Army has launched an investigation into Rapone.
It turns out Rapone was a combat veteran in Afghanistan with an Army Ranger unit. However, Rapone was “released for standards” from the Rangers, which, as ConnectingVets.com reports, means he was booted from the battalion for failing to meet “all standards as outlined in the Ranger Standards ‘Blue Book.’ ” And yet he was then accepted to West Point.
Getting through West Point is an extraordinarily challenging ordeal. Graduating is an impressive accomplishment—one that Rapone has thrown away with a few clicks. Even if the Army could manage to tolerate Communist proselytization in uniform, Rapone’s career is effectively over. Who would want to serve with someone who venerates an America-hating killer such as Guevara?
One might also ask how a committed Communist managed to infiltrate the U.S. Military Academy without West Point commanders being any the wiser.
Rapone’s once-proud family is devastated. In a pained Facebook message, Rapone’s father, a county treasurer in Pennsylvania, denounced his own son’s “politics, his actions or behavior.” Rapone’s father also suggested that his son returned from Afghanistan a profoundly altered person.
If Rapone needs help with PTSD or some other condition affecting his judgment, we hope he gets it. But in the meantime, he should be discharged sooner rather than later. It’s in the best interests of both the Army and Rapone: the Army, because who needs the hassle of policing the actions and agitprop of an anti-American soldier; Rapone, because he’s clearly got all the credentials needed to move on to a fellowship at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
