[AndyJackson]

You are calling the kettle black and have tried to distract the debate onto irrelevancies. The issue raised by this article is whether it is proper for the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee to investigate the decisions of the military regarding the treatment of an officer, whose actions, as reported, a large fraction of Americans regard as heroic. This is an question of the fundamental policies of the United States government and the execution of those policies. The Congress has a right and duty to know. Congress certainly has a right to know whether the published accounts are wrong and there are other facts that the CG are not divulging.

You think that the administration and the generals can get out of this by running it through a JAG process. But it is not obviously an issue of military justice, like someone caught pilfering rations from the supply warehouse. It is an issue of the policies surrounding the conduct of this war.

Demanding answers to the questions raised have nothing to do with demanding instant gratification.

I think that the problem is that neither you nor Poobah understand the very awesuome and sobering duties that a wartime combat commander have. The Commander is not an administrator who shuflles the right papers into the right piles. He is personally responsible for every decision that gets made and personally involves himself in making every importatn decision. The decision to hold an Article 32 hearing is already a decision that in this case the Congress has decided to make him answer for

[Ispy4u]

Answer this:

If the congresscritters didn't want to influence the outcome of this, why did they make it publicly known that they were seeking information about it?

Anything congressmen do in public is about politics. I guess you guys should feel good about the fact that you have finally raised enough of a stink to poison the judicial proceedings.

BTW I totally understand the awesome responsibiltiy of a wartime commander, LTC West failed to live up to it in this case.