If memory serves (and if any military historian out there knows better, please advise) I recall reading somewhere that during the Vietnam war the highest percentage of U.S. casualties suffered by rank was that of lieutenants; one reason being that a significant portion of these junior officers were shot by their own troops -- "fragged" -- who rather understandably objected to being ordered into suicidal environments. (It was for this reason that my oldest brother, who flew helicopters then and there as a warrant officer, Darwinianly declined a promotion.)
Of course it wasn't the lieutenant's keenest desire to order those poor bastards into combat. However the finer points of military command tended to muddle themselves as the stark horror of wading like a neon target through some godforsaken rice paddy settled distressingly in ass-drafted minds. The lieutenant was only following his own orders, yet ...
Right. Not fair. Not fair at all.
And that's why I resist Kathleen Parker's "fragging" metaphor in her column today:
If the nation defaults on its financial obligations, the blame belongs to the Tea Party Republicans who fragged their own leader, John Boehner.
Speaker Boehner was following no superior's orders yesterday. He was saving his own neck. In the U.S. House he's both a general and commander in chief, and if Boehner possessed any political blood uncontaminated by contagious cowardice, he would have gone down fighting rather than poltroonishly coddling his troops.
Boehner wasn't fragged. He just let himself be pushed -- in craven retreat.