All combat infantry officers know what Unless Otherwise Directed means....UNODIR does NOT exempt one from obeying the laws of the United States of America.
You send a message back to your commander telling him the situation has changed and you are taking the initiative to redirect you assigned mission and going against standing orders.
The situation had not changed, except for, apparently, LTC West losing his temper.
It's called CYA. Understand, Grunt?
I understand the concept of CYA. I've seen enough people play it after somebody calls the IG.
I doubt it....
It's called "right" and "wrong."
And it's painfully obvious that you do NOT understand that, Jack...and that you probably never did.
I'm not a member of the US Army, and I don't know the what the code of conduct for officers entail, but I'll use a more basic approach as my judgement.
I see two presumtions that Poohbah made but he didn't back-up. First you say that LTC West lost his temper - where did you infer that from?
And then you said in a previous thread that the situation was not urgent (therefore LTC West should have left the interogation to the MPs). I want to know from where you infered that from too? I mean if you don't know when and where an ambush will occur, how would you know that the situation is not urgent.
Btw, The ends justify the means is fitting in this case, because there was nobody hurt as a result of LTC West's actions.
You say you're a Marine, well I haven't been thourogh basic training in the Marines but you cannot prosecute a man for putting pressure on somebody else and getting the desired result - especially if that result was benefical to your unit.
What if the Iraki didn't talk? - Well he did so there's no point in discussing what-ifs. This debate stopped discussing the present situation and quite a few people started bringing their past experiences to the table as arguments. This only gives answers to non-existent situations.
And the point that LTC West Articled 15 two of his soldiers for the same kind of behaviour. Somebody please tell me the exact account of what happend and what does the sentece of the two man mean. Exactly how harsh is the sentece (not the title of the sentece but how much money/days/rank they were lost) and for what deed.
Thanks for reading and I hope that we would use this board to bring more information to the table and not recycle known facts in harsher words.