"Accomplishing the mission was a very high priority. But the attitude that we could break any rule we wanted to do so, as long as it was in support of mission accomplishment wasn't there."
Which would be fine, if it *always* worked that way in reality, instead of on paper.
But in reality, the military (just like every organization), has an almost non-stop track record of major and minor screw ups, scandals, unintended consequences, and so forth.
That is because (just like every organization), the military suffers from group think, differential association, mission creep, tunnel vision, span of control problems, and so forth.
If strict adherence to the rules by thinking and independent individuals were truly the universal standard in the military, we wouldn't have the current pictures from Iraq, or the USS Iowa, or fragging, or John Walker, or the khaki mafia, or Little Big Horn, or cumshaw, or the various military rape scandals, and so on, and so on.
Dissecting those real world mishaps, the common thread appears time and time again..my term for it is that somebody was 'too cool for the rules'. Whether it was ego, or miscommunication, or goal orientation, or whatever, the rules are always subvertible to a 'greater good', and therefor get broken with great regularity.
The 'Good Ship Lollipop' notion sounds great in a training film, but until the military admits that it is an unrealistic ideal, the reality is never going to go away, no matter how badly some might wish it.
