Pvt. [Scott Thomas]Beauchamp: Proud of Being Ashamed?

Real Clear Politics ^ | August 6, 2007 | Paul McNellis

[2ndDivisionVet]

In a famous passage in his Confessions, St. Augustine admits that as a young boy he ran with a bad crowd and fabricated stories to impress his friends.

I was ashamed among other youths that my viciousness was less than theirs: I heard them boasting of their exploits...not only for the pleasure of the act but for the pleasure of the boasting....and when I lacked opportunity to equal others in vice, I invented things I had not done, lest I might be held cowardly for being innocent, or contemptible for being chaste....Someone cries, 'Come on, let's do it'--and we would be ashamed to be ashamed.

Who among us, at some point in our lives, has not so intensely desired to belong to the group that we ended up apologizing for our virtues and boasting of our vices? It could have taken the form of remaining silent when we should have spoken out. The point, of course, is to grow out of it. Augustine was referring to when he was 16 years old. As one grows older, the fear of appearing virtuous before bad people is replaced by the desire to be virtuous with good people. It's called character.

This passage from Augustine came to mind as I read Pvt. Beauchamp's Baghdad Diarist in The New Republic (TNR), for Beauchamp, far from being "ashamed of being ashamed," is actually proud of being ashamed. After describing how he mocked and humiliated a woman horribly scarred by an IED, Beauchamp writes:

[2ndDivisionVet]

If PV1 Beauchamp doesn't get at least a bad conduct discharge there is something wrong with this country!

[xcamel]

what St. Augustine failed to mention, and realized later in life... they all lied.

[metalcor]

The kid is just a kid. It has got to be tough being a young person today, possibly educated beyond one’s maturity and having one’s mush-brained thoughts saved for eternity on Google’s cache.

Not saying he should be given a pass, but I shudder to think if my journal written as a college freshman had been available to posterity on ‘search’. I know what he wrote he wrote for publication and he should have known better, but I’m not certain I would have....

[Gondring]

On his blog (Sir Real Scott Thomas), Pvt. Beauchamp indicates he's an aspiring writer who joined the Army to establish credentials for voicing his liberal political opinions. --Jack Kelly

Making up things? Seems like he's DEFINITELY "establishing credentials" for liberal writing.

[TChad]

Beauchamp’s story continues its slow-motion collapse, and the TNR editors are conveniently on vacation.

[Gondring]

Augustine’s thuggery as a youth served him well when he turned to violence against heretics. And he no longer had to lie about it!

[shield]

He better...what a disgrace this creep is...

[Billthedrill]

Beauchump did something that every vet would understand and that apparently quite a few non-vets do not - he betrayed the honor of the people he was serving with. To do that for personal gain is to proclaim oneself unworthy of their company. John Kerry comes to mind.

I don't cut him slack because of youth. This wasn't some temporary failure of good sense, it was a long-considered plan acted upon for some time. If he is ashamed it is because he got caught so easily. It will pass. He'll have a horde of enablers stroking his little ego for being so very brave in speaking Truth To Power despite the fact that it wasn't truth and the power was his own by virtue of his uniform. I do not think I could be more completely disgusted with this wretch.

[Theresawithanh]

I’m the first to say that I’m glad my life isn’t out there for people to scrutinize, but Beauchamp was born in 1983, which makes him 23 or 24, hardly a “kid”, and as in the link posted below your post, he did this to give cred to his own liberal politics.

[BallyBill]

DRUDGE had link saying he has admitted the stories are a fraud.

[Tainan]

I would very much like to have that link to that article.

[Scarchin]

I think a dishonorable is more appropriate - AFTER he serves the rest of his time in the brig.

[Stegall Tx]

Goldfarb at the Weekly Standard says that Beauchamp admitted the stories were fabrications on the first day the military began their investigation, but this is not official. It’s merely a report from an unnamed source.

By the way, how does one pronounce "Beauchamp"?

[TWohlford]

“By the way, how does one pronounce ‘Beauchamp’?”

Bow-chump.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Fr. Paul McNellis. An old acquaintance. Now a college professor and one of the Vatican’s top scholars on “ethics”.

Also a combat veteran of Vietnam as well as a Vietnam journalist (civilian).

A great guy. He is the one you want next to you in a foxhole or at a pew.

[Old Student]

My experience in the military tells me that much of the behavior that would embarrass military people later is done to transform pain. Bad jokes, cruel speechs, and so on, are used to turn tears into laughter. Sometimes, the situation just sucks, and there is nothing you can do about it but find some tiny aspect that you can laugh at. Pretty much anything will do to hold the tears at bay.

I spent five years at Nellis AFB as a photographer, much of it documenting aircraft accidents. We had to do autopsies on two pilots who were killed in the same accident, caused by a major malfunction of their aircraft. I was training a new photographer on how to do accident work; we completed the first autopsy before lunch, and took him to a restaurant that served only varieties of chili. He spent the first fifteen minutes we were there looking quite green. It was cruel, but very funny. It also helped to settle him down for the second autopsy. People who get too stressed out can do some really stupid stuff, like curling up in a ball when the shooting starts. Relieving that stress, however it happens, can be life-saving. I guess Beauchamp missed figuring that out.

[HamiltonJay]

He was writing these sorts of dillusional things on his blog before he ever joined the military, I highly doubt anything he’s written is accurate.

[mware]

I hear what you are saying, but he choose to release these diaries in a very public forum.

He knew just what he was doing. He just did not think he would be caught.

[dfwgator]

I say “Code Red” his ass.

[Tainan]

Thank you for the link and info.

As mentioned.....Bow(as in Beaumont,Tx)-champ.