War Is Hell, Not Litigation

Print
4 Comments
Post a Comment
|
Email
Tweet

By R. Emmett Tyrrell (Archive) · Thursday, December 24, 2009

WASHINGTON -- The editor of the venerable conservative weekly Human Events is causing an admirable ruckus. Jed Babbin, once deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of George H.W. Bush and now the editor of the oldest conservative periodical in the land, is petitioning Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to dismiss charges against three SEALs for reputedly causing discomfort to one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq during his capture last September. Babbin now has more than 90,000 petitioners. Count me in.

The SEALs -- Julio Huertas, Jonathan Keefe and Matthew McCabe -- are members of SEAL Team 10. Their platoon captured one Ahmed Hashim Abed during a nocturnal raid on or about Sept. 1 in Iraq. Abed is suspected of being the mastermind of the March 2004 ambush in Fallujah of four Blackwater security guards, which by hindsight was not such a good idea on Abed's part. In a wild firefight, his brutes killed the Blackwater contractors, all retired commandos, when they drove into an ambush. Then they desecrated the bodies, dragging them through the streets and hanging two from a bridge for the world to see. That ostentatious display of barbarism caught the attention of the U.S. military, making it, of a sudden, aware that Iraq was becoming dangerously unstable, with violence potentially spiraling out of control. The atrocity was, as military commentator Rowan Scarborough has observed, a wake-up call that did not turn out well for the brutes.

Precisely what happened to Abed that September night is unclear. But he claims one of the SEALs, McCabe, punched him in the stomach, causing him to bleed from the lip -- odd symptoms, no? Presumably, we shall get all the details during the SEALs' court-martial trials, which are scheduled to begin next month. Yet are these trials really necessary? The other two SEALs are charged with participating in a cover-up. I think it is by now pretty well-established that terrorists do not always tell the truth, and they can be unruly when fallen upon in the dark of night in what they had thitherto considered secure hiding places.

Moreover, al-Qaida provides them with a training manual. According to Chapter 18 of a manual released by the Justice Department, al-Qaida's finest are encouraged to complain of torture and lesser acts of mistreatment at the hands of their captors. Possibly they even hire publicists. Thus, we have come to the point that members of one of our most elite special operations forces are going to be court-martialed for causing Abed a bloody lip during his capture.

The travesty could have been averted had the SEALs settled for a lesser charge. That seems to be what the commanding general in charge, Maj. Gen. Charles T. Cleveland, expected after conferring with Army lawyers. Yes, Army lawyers are almost as influential in the execution of this war on terror as our finest special ops forces. Yet these SEALs entered military service with the highest ambitions. They want, according to Babbin, to become members of the SEALs' most elite team. If they had settled for the "non-judicial punishment" under Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice that was dangled before them, their chances of serving our country at a higher level of combat would have ended.

So now these warriors, who regularly faced a barbaric foe to defend our country, will face courts-martial and possible ruin. Gen. Cleveland had it in his power to tell lower-level commanders simply to lecture these soldiers on avoiding bloody lips in the future, but he set a process in motion that is destructive to these men and to the morale of our finest fighters in the war on terror. Secretary Gates can end this abuse of power by simply doing what Cleveland failed to do. Send these men back to their officers to be chewed out.

I hope Gates will follow this course. He is an honorable and intelligent man. I have known him since his boss at the CIA, then-CIA Director Bill Casey, introduced him to me more than two decades ago and told me that with Gates' talent and good sense, he was destined to do great good for our country. These SEALs have done great good, too. Let us get them back to work and get these courts-martial canceled. The guy who should be appearing in the dock is Ahmed Hashim Abed, whose lip has doubtless healed.

Third-party content does not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Patriot Post.

Print
4 Comments
Post a Comment
|
Email
Tweet

Comments

Walter M. Nowosad

Yes, enemies sometimes are subject to "discomfort" when they act like a rabid animals. I have no ill-feelings for these three men who have gone in harms way on our behalf. Who I do have ill-feelings for are the senior officers who are more willing to play the political correctness card rather than stepping up and doing the correct thing. In this case, deliver a counseling session by way of a chewing out. Instead, these senior officers elected to protect their own careers (butts) rather than protecting their men. Shame on the general and other flag officers for their self-preservation stances. Hoorah for the Seals for standing up for what is right. And regardless of the outcome, these men will have a stamp on their personnel jackets that will mark them as tainted. Sad state of affairs.

Walter M. Nowosad

Senior Chief Petty Officer, retired

Posted December 24, 2009 at 9:54:24 AM

Weldon Shaffer

All of this becomes a moot point when you take no prisoners.

Posted December 27, 2009 at 5:43:21 AM

MichaelSSEC

This is all part of a larger effort to weaken our military, destroy its morale and turn it into a less effective fighting force.

Think of it. You're a soldier deployed into a combat zone. You go out and do your job and you do it well. Then later, some of the captives you chose not to kill on the battlefield turn around and complain that you gave them some minor discomfort -- and you're the one in hot water. Thereafter, do you and your buddies do your jobs, or do you second-guess everything you do, out of fear that if you hurt some terrorist's feelings you could wind up in the stockade? How many of your buddies will die because you hesitate in the face of the enemy from now on? How many routine situations blow up into big bloody scenarios after you use excessive discretion when extreme violence is called for?

You're a young man thinking of joining our all-volunteer military, to defend our country and better yourself through all that a tour of duty can give you. You're excited, proud and eager to get into boot camp. But now you're reading about seasoned veterans being persecuted by our own country for doing their jobs properly. You read about how political correctness has run amok in the US military, resulting in a terrorist attack, numerous prosecutions of good people for trivial offenses (or even imaginary ones), and a general belief in the administration that American servicemen are part of an "enemy camp." Do you still volunteer?

You're a soldier whose enlistment is drawing near an end. You like the military, you love your buddies and you know the economy outside is not good, so you're thinking of re-enlisting. Possibly going career. But then you read about how our own government is going out of its way to screw with soldiers as though the Muslims aren't the enemy -- our own warriors are. You wonder if maybe some day you won't be court martialed for doing your own job properly. Do you re-enlist?

That's what these radicals WANT. America can't be the strongest country on Earth if our military is afraid to offend anyone or break anything for fear of lawsuits and courts martial. That suits these multicultural Liberals just fine. That's simple justice to them.

Posted December 27, 2009 at 7:24:27 PM

MichaelSSEC

BTW, go to humanevents.com and sign the petition. They're up to more than 105,000 signatures now.

Posted December 27, 2009 at 7:29:05 PM

Patriot Headline Report

The Right Opinion

More Opinion

Grassroots Commentary

More Commentary

Policy and Analysis

Our Mission

To Support and Defend -- Read The Patriot Post -- It's Right. It's Free. -- www.patriotpost.us

"The Patriot's mission is to advocate for Essential Liberty, the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and to promote free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. Our objective is to provide Patriots across our nation with a touchstone of First Principles through brief, informative and entertaining analyses of relevant news, policy and opinion from reputable research, advocacy and media organizations, so they may better support and defend those Principles, and enlist others to join our ranks." —Mark Alexander, Publisher

The Patriot Post is not sustained by any political, special interest or parent organization, and we accept no advertising. Our mission and operations are funded entirely by the voluntary financial support of Patriots like you!

Support The 2012 Patriot Fund

Name	(required, displayed)
Email	(required, not displayed)
Comments

Navigation

Options