I hadn’t heard that the Wests were onboard. Thanks for that.
I found this comment in an interview that Bing West gave to the Columbia Journalism Review. In light of the start of the Article 32 hearings, I thought this was a great reminder for us all...
Then as a country we have to ask ourselves “Who will fight five years from now?” It’s fine to criticize policy, but at the same time we should at least understand the fighting and give credit to them for their courage, instead of treating them as victims, because they’re not victims. They’re aggressive hunters. And that’s what this country needs. You need tough guys in the Marine Corps. And so my final message is teach the free man to praise, and if [a soldier] gets into hand-to-hand [combat] in those houses then you should say, “By gosh, I thank you for that kind of courage.” Because those jihadists are out to kill us. I mean, coulda-shoulda-woulda, why are we in Iraq? I view all that as yesterday’s newspaper, in one way. We are in a death struggle with these guys, and we better understand that. These Marines are the ones out there doing the fighting, but if the jihadists took over Iraq, they wouldn’t declare a truce, so we’re gradually going to have to stand up the Iraqi army and Iraq hopefully will be more like Colombia than like Lebanon. It’ll never be perfect the way people hope, but we have to give praise to these Marines for their valor.
http://www.cjrdaily.org/the_water_cooler/bing_west_on_the_marines_the_p.php