As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell.
 I've never made a secret about how I feel about war criminal Allen West, a disgraced former military commander who supervised and participated in the savage torture of an Iraqi detainee. So when I read a statement like the one above from Allen West, as someone who has been shot at by the Taliban I have to respond.
First, I have to give the Chair of the House War Criminals Caucus Congressman credit. Unlike many of his right wing colleagues, West actually recommends that the Marines be punished, albeit lightly and in a manner that would be a violation of Article 13, UCMJ:
"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.
Silly, right? Keep in mind, without the ridiculous suggestion about standing in front of a formation to engage in nonsense, that's essentially the same punishment West received from the Army for this incident:
Arriving at the interrogation room, West approached Hamoodi, took out his gun, and chambered a round. He placed it in his lap with the gun barrel facing Hamoodi. "I had drawn out my pistol as a means of conveying a threat to him for the seriousness of wanting the information," West told investigators.
Hamoodi said that after West's arrival, "a soldier pulled his shirt over his head, and numerous others began to punch him in the chest." The beating bruised his ribs, said Hamoodi, but those bruises had healed in the month that passed before he met with investigators.
Said West: "Yes, there had been sporadic body punches and shoving to the individual, which I witnessed but did not allow to get too brutal."
Hamoodi still didn't give West or the soldiers the information they wanted, either because he wasn't part of the assassination plot or because he was being an uncooperative witness.
West ordered Hamoodi out of the interrogation room and took him outside the facility, where Hamoodi says West pointed to six soldiers who were standing in line with their weapons in hand. Through the Egyptian translator, West told Hamoodi: "If you don't talk, they will kill you."
When that didn't work, West admitted to pushing Hamoodi's head into a clearing barrel full of sand, which is typically used for clearing weapons. West then put his gun into the same barrel, near Hamoodi's head and fired.
"In my anger I do not know if I fired two shots in to the barrel or one into the air and another into the barrel," said West in his sworn statement.
The day anyone should listen to Allen West about how service members should be punished for the things shown in that video is the day we should start taking pet care advice from Michael Vick.
Even while West acknowledges the Marines should be punished, he seems to accuse the media of blowing the incident out of proportion:
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?
First, there was a public sentiment of indignation after those incidents, but that's neither here nor their. What is important is that America is an exceptional nation. Yes, despite what you've heard about liberals, I believe this. But American Exceptionalism does not mean that we get to do whatever we want because we are better. It means that because we are better, we must hold ourselves to a higher standard. People expect terrorists in Somalia and Iraq to treat the enemy in an inhumane manner. As awful as it is for their victims, it is their SOP.
That is not, however, how Americans operate. Well, with the exception of war criminals like Allen West. The Congressman seems to think that we are no better than the Taliban, the Madhi Army or Somali terrorists.
I have been shot at by the Taliban, Congressman West. And it doesn't mean I'm okay with what these Marines did or that they should get just a slap on wrist. How about this for a new rule:
Unless you haven't been charged with abusing detainees, shut your mouth. War is hell, but that doesn't give anyone the excuse to act like the enemy. |
