Posted on 05/17/2015 4:12:41 PM PDT by mandaladon
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — An Army officer stripped of a medal for heroism under fire and his right to call himself a Green Beret is fighting for his military career after accusations he tracked down and killed a suspected bomb-maker in Afghanistan.
Though a criminal investigation failed to find remains of his alleged victim and didn't result in charges against Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, he's been targeted for possible dismissal from the Army and the consequent loss of veteran's benefits with a less-than-honorable discharge.
A Fort Bragg hearing before three, higher-ranked Special Forces officers could meet later this month to weigh arguments from Golsteyn's attorney why he should remain on active duty.
"My hope is that Golsteyn will receive a fair and impartial hearing. Based on the Army's actions and decisions thus far, I regret to say this won't be the case," one of the soldier's defenders, U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., wrote Wednesday to Army Secretary John McHugh. Army brass have kept Hunter updated on the case.
Others believe the Army is obligated to act because the Geneva Conventions governing warfare forbid arbitrary killings by troops, said Jeffrey K. Walker, a St. John's University criminal law professor.
"That's a minimum protection anybody gets at any time, no matter how you categorize them or how you categorize the conflict. That is the basic floor below which nobody can drop as far as protections go," said Walker, a retired Air Force officer and former military lawyer. "Arbitrary deprivation of life is at the top of the list of things you cannot do."
Golsteyn's roller-coaster military career from battlefield hero to whispers of a war crime is rooted in the deadly month of February 2010, when American-led allied forces seized the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
It’s a good thing we did not fight our battles like this in WW2, or I might be typing this in German! /s;)
He should be lucky he wasn’t charged with murder as that is what he apparently did. This has been tossed around in the news and here on Freerepublic for quite a while. As a veteran myself I take offense to what he did and his obstruction. He should be booted with dishonorable discharge as this reflects so incredibly poor on our other soldiers and on the US.
Why is that?
So how is this an ‘arbitrary’ killing when he tracked down an insurgent and killed him, but it’s not ‘arbitrary’ for the government to track down and kill an insurgent with a drone?
There’s no evidence he did anything, as I read it; no proof the “bomb maker” even existed.
Wrong! He should be given two medals, one get out of jail free, a promotion and our gratitude to men like him. Men that put the protection of their troops ahead of political correctness.
WHAT PART OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS DOES NOT UNDERSTAND IT IS A GOD DAMN WAR do they not understand? Unfortunately the political correct do understand. What most people do not understand is the politically correct are not on our side.
That's easy for you to say. Being in a combat zone causes people to do things that might seem strange or inexplicable to the rest of us. I am willing to give this soldier the benefit of doubt. And the pansy-ass Army brass should give him his medal back. What a bunch of wussies.
Our military was the last respected American institution to fall to the Left.
We expect the impossible from our warriors. It is to say the least, bad form to prosecute them when they deliver.
Ja wol, Ich auch.
I'm a combat vet too from another war a long time ago; camaraderie and support for your fellow American should apply until the facts are known.
If anything, the guy saved lives.
But that's exactly what Obama is doing with his targeted drone attacks.
We had some “huh? do what?” rules in Vietnam but nothing on a par with the insanity my boy has told me about that was Afghanistan. He said once that he had heard since he was little the saying, “Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.” and that over there guys muttered that to themselves.
He should surely have kept his mouth shut at least until after he got out of the Army. His medal should not have been revoked. It was based on what other people saw him do. He did those things.
Looks like our military is the opposite of our police. Military management sells their soldiers out at the drop of a hat and the police management goes down like the black Knight in Monty Python’s Holy Grail.
Amen Brother.
Apparently, he revealed it during a polygraph test for a job with CIA. Either way, he did the public a service, so the Army needs to back off.
Proof without any doubt. If the Army cannot prove it without a doubt they should drop it and let him serve. Here say is not going to cut the mustard within our democracy unless things have changed which they may have.
Absolutely! Well said.
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