Fine. He talked straight to you. His attorney (who legally speaks for him--why do you think i's called a "power of attorney," anyway?) said otherwise.
As to his making a public spectacle. If this had been handled in this current fashion, which is what he expected and believed should happen, he would not have done anything. Someone was out to hang his hide on a rack and he exercised his own perogative in the end to save his pension for his family...and it worked. I cannot fault him for that.
When it involves false statements to the public, I do have a problem with that, and can fault him.
In the end, you seem to suggest he should take the unwarrented loss of his pension and court martial "for the service".
No, I would prefer that LTC West and his attorney had either told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to the public--or that they had simply kept silent until the Article 32 hearing.
His oath is to the constitutiona and the wellbeing of this nation...he was willing to take one for that, and is now going to.
As long as he didn't suffer any material hardship, he's happy. F*** his troops, though.
Fine example of moral courage.
But he was being treated (in his own estimation and in the estimation of many, many others) in a manner that was far disprorortionate to what he did and he determined to do something about it.
Uh-huh. No problem with his troops getting punished for obeying his illegal orders--but he sure didn't want any materially adverse consequences for himself.
I've had the displeasure of serving under two commanders who thought and acted like that. One is far too many.
I have talked not only to LTC West, but to troops there and to their families. They do not feel in the least that he screwed them, to the contrary, to the person they have been willing to support him and lauded him.
Clearly, there is at least one individual in the battalion who feels otherwise to some extent. I have not been able to find that one individual who wrote, in passing, a comment that brought the JAG into it and led to what we have seen. Nonetheless, I am confidant in the story as I have presented here on FR.
We clearly disagree...I'm not surprised by that but am glad that such disagreements and debate have allowed the story to get aired completely and for this end to be reached...which is what the LTC felt would occur from the get-go.
'nuff said on my part, others can come to their own conclusions.