Posted on 01/13/2012 11:25:48 AM PST by Retired Greyhound
Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), a former Army lieutenant colonel, sends THE WEEKLY STANDARD an email commenting on the Marines' video, and has given us permission to publish it.
“I have sat back and assessed the incident with the video of our Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. I do not recall any self-righteous indignation when our Delta snipers Shugart and Gordon had their bodies dragged through Mogadishu. Neither do I recall media outrage and condemnation of our Blackwater security contractors being killed, their bodies burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.
“All these over-emotional pundits and armchair quarterbacks need to chill. Does anyone remember the two Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who were beheaded and gutted in Iraq?
“The Marines were wrong. Give them a maximum punishment under field grade level Article 15 (non-judicial punishment), place a General Officer level letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God, Country, and Corps videotaped and conclude by singing the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.
“As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell.”
He must access way different media than I do. There was indignation, outrage and condemnation all over the place.
Ditto.
Here come the Allen West for President comments.
—Well said.—
I’ll say! I love his recommendation for discipline too. Let the punishment fit the crime, and move on.
I like it.
Is this somehow worse than the crimes perpetrated by the architects of Fast & Furious? They still have their jobs, or were transferred with no loss of retirement, etc. Prosecute some real crimes!
Allen West plagiarized my post on the Washington Compost article about this.
He said it plainly and well and does not apologize.
Too bad our current presidential candidates cannot do the same.
That is a man,a soldier,and a leader.Go Allen West.
No, not well said. West is using equivocation in comparing bad acts by the Taliban as justification for these Marines desecrating the dead.
Marines are better than that. They have standards to live up to - these Marines failed. They should be disciplined - bust them in rank, give them the “Big Chicken Dinner(BCD)” - they will be an example of how not to behave for Marines in the future.
Well you should be glad that he did.
It needed to be echoed by someone with clout.
I like his response. And his suggested punishment fits the crime.
The marines were wrong to do what they did, but it was a firefight! In my opinion, their biggest mistake was making a video!
Great statement!
I had to laugh at Hillary Clinton tut-tutting about the incident.
Hillary has been known to pee in odd places. (The hallway of the Watergate Apts., for instance.)
What hypocrites!
I think West is being a little hard on the Marines with the letter of reprimand, but good for him in speaking up.
This nation has forgotten what war is. We think of it as a police actions with lawyers, judges, and courts of public opinion. The second the people actually fear for their lives they won’t give a rats ass about such nonsense.
“The dead” who were “desecrated” couldn’t care less. They were too busy enjoying their Forty Virgins.
Telling people to ‘shut the hell up’ does not help the cause. Squashing dissenting voices is the behavior of a tyrant.
If Obama told us to shut the hell up about Obamacare, I can imagine how loud the whining would be on here.
As long as they weren’t facing Mecca....
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