Friday, November 27, 2009

Clubbing SEALS

From the NY POST:
Punch a terrorist -- head for the brig.
Welcome to America's thoroughly modern military.
The notion beggars the imagination, but three Navy SEALs who helped capture one of the most notorious terrorists in Iraq now face courts-martial -- because the terrorist acquired a bloody lip after the takedown.
[...]
It's not hard to figure out what happened here: One SEAL slugged Abed -- no doubt for good reason -- and the other two wouldn't rat out their buddy to investigators who would've been better employed slugging Abed themselves.
And so the SEALs will be arraigned on Dec. 7 -- another reason for the date to live in infamy.
Ironically, if the three had treated Abed like Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq has routinely treated American soldiers it captures, his bloody, mutilated corpse would've turned up floating in a river.
(For the record, the number of US combat troops captured in Iraq and Afghanistan who have been recovered alive is approximately zero.)

20 comments:

Hazcat said...

Though I am sorry that this is even happening I am glad the SEALs turned down the Captains Mast and demanded a Courts Martial. MAYBE if we expose this PC BS enough we can kill it.

These men and women put their lives on the line to carry out their mission and ensure our safety. They should ALL be honored not persecuted and prosecuted by the MSM and this administration.

Anonymous said...

Our real enemies are no longer in Afghanistan.
They are in DC
Thomas Bogan

Unknown said...

If you can stomach the read about how this kind of BS got all but one of a SEAL team killed, read Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell. Since they are even being tried sends a very bad message, and if they are convicted, will send an even worse message.

-Bidah

nj_larry said...

I remember Jeff Cooper writing about the differences between warfare and police actions. I can't locate it but it was in the late 1990's I believe. Sadly the bureaucrats have confused the two. So now we worry ourselves to death about bombing the enemy. We take casualties because it's the "right thing" to do. We don't fire back because someone might get hurt. We give the enemy legal rights, counsel, and trials. This done so as to de-legitimatize previous wars. To show how evil America was and is.

"War is hell" is now "War is a Human Resources Department issue. Please see your manager for instructions". Something we need to fill out paperwork over.

Insanity.

Mathew Paust said...

As a retired newspaper reporter who holds the First Amendment second only to the Second, I hope to hell this didn't come about because of some God damned embedded a$$hole reporter interested more in his or her notoriety than in common sense and human decency.

We've already had too many of those kinds of "exclusives" coming out of the Middle East. There ought to be a special kind of Pulitzer to award to those moral insects, and you are free to use your own imagination as to how such recognition should be administered.

Eric said...

To quote Col. Cooper: "It is annoying to hear of people who regard a court-martial as a punishment in itself. A court-martial is a means of determining guilt or innocence, and a "full and honorable acquittal" by a court is the equivalent of a commendation. Soldiers have frequently requested courts-martial in order to clear the record in their direction. To say that a man will be court-martialed in no sense means that he will be punished. That is for the court to decide. The court-martial may be the equivalent of a medal, in some circumstances."

Commentaries, Vol. 13 , No. 1

Kristophr said...

Maybe, Eric ...

But in reality, a CM is a career ender, win or lose. For a SEAL, a Captain's mast is also a career ender, so they didn't have any good options.

If the retards at the top go through with this, the best they can do is wreck the careers of everyone who thought that enthusiastically following the Retard in Chief's PC edicts was a good notion.

Anonymous said...

guess the ass kisser's in the Navy heirarchy are now more interested in pleasing their liberal masters in congress (funding) and the executive branch (promotions) than they are in the good of the service...figures, many of them got to flag rank by kissing ass over the course of their careers anyway...

Anonymous said...

I bet we won't hear about any more high value targets taken alive.

Rastus said...

Unfortunately, the liberal congressman and senators get to nominate or put young people in the military schools. Some of the liberal fascist ideology has got to sift through. That is likely what is a reason for much of the PC in the DoD today.

Persecuting the SEALs is a travesty of national will, courage and valor.

We can only hope the DoD recognizes the domestic enemies portion of their charge and acts accordingly.

God bless our troops.

Indrid Cold said...

These guys should be awarded a new medal, the "Purple Fist."

Geoff aka Pathfinder said...

One analysis I read (sorry, no link, HD catastrophic failure - I lost everything on the HD) indicated this was payback for the Maersk Alabama incident where the USN Captain overrode instructions and gave the green light to the SEALS to whack the 3 terrorists on the lifeboat to save the Alabama's Captain.

Apparently someone in the chain of command (top maybe?) decided it was time to remind everyone who's calling the shots these days.

Mathew Paust said...

Indrid - When I served we had another name for the award of which you speak: The Green Weenie. In this case I would amend the Weenie to Cactus.

Anonymous said...

SNAFU- seems to fit pretty well yet. the mushroom

Anonymous said...

I think this is NOT so much about some terrorist with a fat lip, but rather, more about 3 SEALs who conspired to lie about it to cover it up.

If they could NOT have manned up and said, "Yeah, I punched the $(#%*#...so what?" and taken their punishment then like men, then maybe they shouldn't be SEALs.

If one guy had manned up and fallen on his sword, the other two wouldn't have been forced into this situation in the first place.

At the minimum, they should have been advised of their rights if/when they were questioned as part of an official investigation. They could have merely quoted "Article 31 of the UCMJ".

Which is the same as pleading the Fifth.

Even in the military, you still have the protection from being forced to self-incriminate.

And they should have refused to answer the question until they met with a lawyer from the Area Defense Counsel (ADC).

Methinks if they play their cards right, they can parlay this situation for their 15 minutes of fame, write a book about it, and end up working for Blackwater for at least three times the money. Or better yet, staying stateside and instructing classes, not having to worry about the cesspools of Iraq and/or A-stan.

Anonymous said...

@ Rastus... you have no clue what you are talking about dude!

Yeah, a nomination by a Senator or Representative is required to go to a Service Academy. Just because a kid gets nominated, it doesn't automatically mean that they are going to West Point, Annapolis, or the Zoo. Admissions to any of the Service Academies is still strictly at the discretion of that Service Academy.

And if a kid is a bleeding heart liberal when they show up for "beast", they are going to either get washed out of the program... or be forced out before graduation/commissioning.

There is no way that a liberal 18 year old is smart enough or has the intestinal fortitude enough to put up with the BS that is a Service Academy education just so he/she can go on to become some liberal puppetmaster once they become an "Oh" .

I might go out on a limb here, but I reckon outside of the Citadel and VMI, the Service Academies are the last bastions of conservative education left here in the States.

Mike M. said...

You're out on a limb. ALL engineering schools are bastions of conservative thought. There's no room for liberal superstitions when your life is on the line.

seeker_two said...

Looks like future islamofascist captures may end up getting the spotted owl treatment.....S3......as well they should....

Anonymous said...

I'm ready to buy the "Free the NavSpecWarGru Three" shirt. I need a 2XL, thank yo very much.

Anonymous said...

There is more to a Service Academy education than just engineering classes. By golly, they even teach english, poli sci, business management, psychology, physical education, and yeah, even appreciation of art and music classes.

I have only had the pleasure of visiting one other civilian school where engineering was taught. It was Berkley (rolls eyes) . An engineering school does NOT necessarily make the entire university conservative.