Except when you give up your integrity and vote with the enemy in war they hang your ass.
Nobody has the right to call LTC West a coward, so just stop it right now. He is a man who was court martialed for putting the lives of his men first, before the rules that were endangering them. And what he did, worked. He did save the lives of his men, though it ended his career.
Yes, he did what he thought was right, then, and armchair generals decided that it was intolerable. And he did in Washington what he thought was right there, too. And once again armchair generals are saying that “he betrayed us”, or that he is “weak”.
You were not there in Washington. You do not know what he knew. He is a man of honor. Remember that.