"OMG the world is going to end!!!! A ruuuuuuuuuuuuule was broooooooooooken!!!!
And I suspect their teachers got quite a few apples.
I'm not overdramatizing what he did. He willfully violated orders; he gave illegal orders to his personnel, who have since been punished for obeying those orders.
You cannot punish the subordinate and then pat the senior on the head for the same action.
He simply got the job done the most efficient was possible and didn't hurt anybody - a fact which seems to be lost on you both.
It hasn't been established as fact that he actually got the job done as he described it--a fact which seems to be lost on the West groupies.
You are acting like one of these clownish public school administrators who discover one of their little Zero Tolerance rules was technically broken.
This is what we know, factually:
(1) LTC West did violate orders from his seniors, and gave illegal orders to his subordinates.
(2) An ambush that may or may not have been actually planned did not take place.
(3) No one has demonstrated a solid connection between (1) and (2). Indeed, no one has actually demonstrated that (2) was actually about to happen.
(4) West's subordinates have been punished for obeying West's illegal orders.
(5) West now faces prosecution for issuing those orders and disobeying lawful orders to begin with.
That's all we know at this time.
"No harm, no foul."