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He chose a different method and even though his troops may admire that"

Not only did his troops NOT admire that, they turned him in. Col. West's followers would like you to believe that he reported on himself, which is false. Not only that, Col. West punished his own men for their own code violations prior to his incident. But you are right to say that Col. West CHOSE another method. He had no right to choose anything outside of the rules he swore to follow.

You are, of course, correct that his troops turned him in. I was merely making the point of how dangerous it is even if they did.

He had no right to choose anything outside of the rules he swore to follow.

Here is the oath of office to which an officer swears, " I, John Doe, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.''

You claim to know the first Sargent of the 4th infantry who is giving you the true low down on the West case...yeah right! Because of the potential public back-lash that this trial might afford the Military..you can bet no first sargent isn't going to be telling you any-thing but the official line!
Because if you are truly speaking to him, you have just outed him on line and this may subject the First Sargent to an obstuction of justice charge and violation of security oaths and just about a zillion other things that would send a FIRST SARGENT to Leavenworth for a thousand years! For that matter, with all the security and everything else how is it you have a direct line over there...especially in regards to the West case? For that matter you might be Psy ops your self, the military has areputation to guard does it not? I don't think you know squat and your just blowing smoke! If I was that First Sargent, I wouldn't have liked being outed on Free Republic!

My take on the case is that West violated interrogation procedures or he didn't! If the local JAG group felt there was a violation of procedure, he should not have been GIVEN A CHOICE OF RETIREMENT WITHOUT PAY or court Martial with threat of imprisonment. They should have relieved him of command and arrested him pending hearings and court Martial. It was the choice presented to him that the Colonel(and any man in the army as long as him) that he found unpalatable. Under duress, mistakes in judgment occur and they must be disciplined. The prisoner in question is alive, his men are alive! West was told...destroy your-self or we will destroy you. Well, a man would rather be destroyed then to destroy himself for such an error especially when the results didn't justify it.
He shouldn't have been given that choice...if the local JAG has a case, they should have gone right to arrest and court martial, in the end even if West had lost, it would have preserved some dignity. Now you have a Colonel doing a "Clarence Thomas" on the military(with some justification I might add...I mean you don't rise to Lt. Colonel with-out putting in some box-tops), and even if there was culpability on the Colonel's part, the military looks very bad. The court martial is probably the right thing to do, the act of giving the Colonel a "choice" of retirement or court Martial was wrong! The Colonel obviously feels he's being rail-roaded or else he wouldn't be putting up such a sqwawk. (I suppose its going to come down an arguement as to what IS IS...which is what we were left with after the Clintonoids put their brand of spit and NO POLISH on the military)