Yes, that was the person I was referring to.
I think Allen West is great. If he is for this man, given what I know, I am too.
I had to go back and read it to refresh my memory, and I didn’t like the sound of it. It sounded like the Army prosecutors leaned on some of the enlisted until they cracked, and probably threatened the others who didn’t that they were going to go down too now that the others were going to testify.
In one account I read, they said he was too aggressive and rash...but the guy had not been in country for long. I know these kinds of things can be strange to people like me who have never experienced it, the dynamics of characterizing a guy like that who had only just arrived, but I understand it completely. I don’t know if he replaced a very popular or competent officer, or if he just got under their skin, or...if the legal arm of the Army pressured them to say that.
I have always hated the way the military conducts some of these things. They aren’t always as interested in finding the truth as they are in trying to get as much dirt off of the particular service as possible, and to hell with with the poor grunts who had to make the decisions.
Doesn’t mean all military prosecutions are bad. I just grit my teeth when I see things like this. I think it is damn hard enough for men to have to go into battle and do the things that we as citizens ask them to do, then be second guessed and vilified for trying to stay alive and do their jobs. I have never liked it, even though it seems to go with the territory with the media and judiciary we have now.
I’m career military, but retired in 2001. My son did 2 tours in Iraq, 2004 & 2007, IIRC. During his time in Iraq, if that would have happened, they would have blown the motorcycles away without even thinking.
If JAG had to go out on patrols.....there’d be a lot less of this bullshit.