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From these email exchanges, a couple of things seem kind of obvious about Col. Boylan.
1.) He is a liar. It's pretty freaking obvious he sent the original email, realizes that he spoke, shall we say, with far too much candor, and is now trying to squirm off the hook.
2.) He clearly regards Greenwald as the enemy -- not a journalist and taxpayer who's entitled to his cooperation, if not his respect. This isn't particularly surprising, given that the ultra Red Staters tend to regard all Blue Staters that same way. But it's rare to hear it expressed so openly and publicly (see point #1)
As far as Boylan's actual rant, Greenwald, as a lawyer, ought to recoginize the tactic. As they say: If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law, pound the law. If you don't have the facts OR the law, pound the table. And that was a heap of electronic table pounding on Boylan's part.
The longer-term implication is pretty sobering: The military establishment, or at least a large part of it, is easing itself over the line that separated passive hatred of the "liberals" and the Democratic Party to active political opposition and open collaboration with the authoritarian rump of the conservative movement.
Banana Republic (not to mention Banana Republicans) here we come!
