Posted on 11/04/2003 10:24:01 AM PST by Jacob Kell
Do you want a surefire recipe to lose the Iraq war?
It's easy, really.
Just allow the Pentagon to move forward with plans to court martial Lt. Col. Allen B. West.
The day that happens is the day U.S. popular support for this war goes south. The day that happens is the day our fighting men realize this war like Vietnam is going to be micromanaged by the politicians in Washington who know little or nothing about the split-second judgments that need to be made when you're under fire. The day that happens is the day America loses some of its moral authority in conducting this foreign war and descends into the kind of schizophrenic self-consciousness that cost it clear-cut military and political victories in the past.
West is the U.S. Army officer a 20-year veteran scheduled for retirement last weekend who interrogated an Iraqi prisoner by firing a pistol into the air near his head, thus saving the lives of his own troops and discovering the details of an impending attack.
West isn't getting a medal for this conduct which would be appropriate in my opinion. Instead, he was told to resign his commission prior to retirement and lose his retirement benefits or face a court martial.
West told the Washington Times in an e-mail he was desperate to gain information to protect his soldiers who face almost daily attacks in their effort to impose security in Tikrit, where Saddam Hussein loyalists are fighting back.
We saw the results of one of those attacks last weekend when a U.S. helicopter was shot down killing 16 troops headed for leave.
"I have never denied what happened and have always been brutally honest," West said. "I accept responsibility for the episode, but my intent was to scare this individual and keep my soldiers out of a potential ambush. There were no further attacks from that town. We further apprehended two other conspirators (a third fled town) and found out one of the conspirators was the father of a man we had detained for his Saddam Fedayeen affiliation."
West said the prisoner "and his accomplices were a threat to our soldiers and the method was not right, but why should I lose 20 years of service or be forced into prison for protecting my men?"
If prosecutors present enough evidence of wrongdoing at a hearing in Iraq next week, West could be court martialed and sentenced up to eight years in prison.
The staff judge advocate for the 4th Infantry Division has charged him under the Uniform Military Code with communicating a threat and aggravated assault. The Aug. 21 incident came amid fears of an impending sniper attack on U.S. forces and reports of an assassination plot aimed at West, an artillery battalion commander.
In a previous e-mail to the Times, West said while interrogating the Iraqi policeman he "fired into the weapons clearing barrel outside the facility alone, and the next time I did it while having his head close to the barrel. I stood in between the firing and his person. I admit that what I did was not right, but it was done with the concern of the safety of my soldiers and myself."
After informing his superior officer of the incident, West said he heard nothing more until a broader inquiry was launched by Army chiefs.
In other words, West's superiors in the field understood what he did and why. They understood the necessity of unconventional tactics in an unconventional war. But the politicians still don't get it.
You can change that by demanding the Pentagon drop this case against West.
They don't have to give him a medal, which he deserves. But they need to be forced to get off this good man's back.
MALMEDY and McCARTHY Printed in the AMERICAN MERCURY, November 1954, By Freda Utley.
How much we have changed. Is it no wonder that W.W.II was the last clear victory? Iraq is not settled. As in Vietnam the political quagmire at home is sucking victory into the pool of feces created by the war's (and America's?) opponents.
German army teen-age enlisted men and young non-commissioned officers were being "convicted" and hanged by U.S. occupying forces following the war. Congressman (at the time) Joe McCarthy along with other Congressmen "relying upon information given by such irreproachable Americans as Lt. Colonel Willis P. Everett, and by prominent religious leaders" investigated.
Today a career U.S. Army officer discharges a weapon in the presence of a prisoner and it hits the fan. No wonder they were the "greatness generation." They could tell the difference.
I have no combat experience so I'll defer to those who have: is it true as intimated elsewhere that if we are "nice" to prisoners then captured Americans will get "nice" treatment? I have no combat experience but I can read and I believe the answer is, NO!
A propaganda machine is not the real reason why Americans lose interest -- we are dumb, nihilistic, and self-indulgent to the point that we can't pay attention to anything that lasts longer than a 30-second television ad.
In my mind, I knew this "war on terror" was lost very soon after it began. There were two specific events that led me that conclusion:
1. The day the New York City Council passed the citywide smoking ban. It's hard to fathom how idiotic that is -- 2,500 people are killed in a terrorist attack in Lower Manhattan, and less than a year later cigarette smoke is considered a pressing public safety issue. Un. F#cking. Believable.
2. The day the "prescription drug coverage for seniors" was proposed by Congress. Again, the misplaced priorities here are breathtaking -- A nation that focuses its efforts on stupid things like this at a crucial moment in our history has not only lost interest in the war, but has lost it's f#cking mind.
I hope you are correct in your hopes concerning a future Iraq with a government somewhat resembling a democratic republic. In my most humble of opinions I believe it is a goal that just won't be achieved in that region of the world where so many people are either opposed to or incapable of understanding the benifits of personal freedom.
There are so many forces vehemently opposed to western ideology and culture. From the poor, un or under-educated followers of Islam as practiced in the mid east to the despots in power over them that I am really unsure we can accomplish that task.
One this is for certain, however. We must "WIN" this war even if it means bombing them back into the dark ages where their world view and philosophy has had them mentally trapped for eons.
Rather than attempting to define what winning will be, I suggest we need to really define what the WAR is all about. I believe it is about the ability of all western civilization to be able to live in peace and security from a philosophy bent upon our destruction.
We didn't start this WAR, but we damned sure must make sure that it is completed in "our" favor.
Unfortunately down the line I think we are going to have to make some hard decisions on "our rules of engagement" to include the manner in which we interrogate suspected soldiers in Allah's Army.
The genie is out of the bottle for LTC. West and the best thing the Pentagon and Administration could do now is to quickly get this unfortunate affair behind them. Let the man retire with full benifits at his present grade and "ruck on" (old soldier talk).
Again thank you for your service.
Who Ah & whooooooooppppp (new soldier talk).
What makes me angry is the Army determination to grind LTC West into hamburger and make an example of him. Relieve him or reprimand him? Sure. But a General Court, loss of retirement pay and possible prison? If a morale bomb existed and you set it off in the 4th I.D. you couldn't kill off morale more effectively. These soldiers know LTC West willingly sacrificed his career to save their lives - and now they know the Army wants to send him to prison for saving their lives.
Remember, the 4th I.D. occupies Tikrit and will likely be the unit that would catch Saddam, if we catch him. Do we really want to destroy that unit's morale?
Hah! True enough! I've often wondered how much of our national gene pool comes from the restless ones who left all behind to forge a new future on new continent. A few cases of Attention Deficit Disorder among them, I'll bet.
Hah! True enough! I've often wondered how much of our national gene pool comes from the restless ones who left all behind to forge a new future on new continent. A few cases of Attention Deficit Disorder among them, I'll bet.
I think you are overly optimistic about the impact this will have on unit morale and the aggressiveness with which the troops will seek out the terrorists. If scaring a terrorist with a gun report is an "assualt" punishable by prison in that unit, a lot of soldiers will react by going into a defensive mode. Why be aggressive, it's not only dangerous, but you'll be second guessed by people willing to throw the book at you?
It's the zero tolerance, overcharging of offenses mentality that is corroding so many sectors of our society.
The officer served honorably for 19.9 years. He had to be a pretty darn good leader to get a batallion command in the 4th I.D. Why do you defend treating this man like dogsh!t for an action that demonstrably saved the lives of American soldiers???
Or what if the Iraqi had given false information that allowed his comrades to successfully ambush the unit and inflict more casualties than otherwise would have happened?
He has hired counsel who reportedly is already enroute to Iraq for the Article 32 hearing. This thing is going forward to try to destroy a good man.
You miss the issue, which is not whether what the colonel did violated the rules of prisoner interrogation. The attempt to destroy this man is totally disproportionate to the offense.
What would he have done if firing two shots didn't work? What anybody does when a bluff doesn't work, fold the hand. Have you read any of the officer's statements? He is very rational, very clear, not the wild man you imply.
Your view of soldiers in the field as robots who will lap up a briefing and say yeah, the man who saved my life ought to go to Leavenworth, now that it's been explained to me properly, is just not realisitic.
He has one of the best military lawyers there is, so maybe at a very high price he can save his retirement pay and an honorable discharge. The Army is wrong to put him through this when he is ready to take responsibility for his actions.
I'm glad you guys weren't around in WWII, from the stories I've heard. You'd have thrown a lot of the "greatest generation" in jail.
The perps were planning an ambush. When they were arrested, it never happened. I'd like to see you argue this in that battalion's mess hall.
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