Tuesday, November 24, 2009
This is what happens when you put lawyers in charge
We are prosecuting three Navy Seals for giving a terrorist a bloody lip. OK, there might also have been some obstruction of justice in there somewhere, but the underlying charge is so obviously asinine you have to wonder whether you would not have done the same thing.
Of course, the real problem is that the criminalization of military action will make it much harder to attract top people to the armed services, and that will work to the advantage of every country in the world that (i) has a small military, or (ii) does not have rule of law. Which is every country in the world except the United States and Israel.
Seems like a bad policy to me.
9 Comments:
By 
Dawnfire82, at
Tue Nov 24, 11:23:00 PM:
According to Hotair, according to Fox, the initial response was non-judicial punishment and the Sailors involved demanded (as is their legal right) a court martial instead. This measure is built into the UCMJ to serve as a catch on the power of a commanding officer over his enlisted men; to prevent them from spuriously charging a trooper. Basically, the enlisted guy can say, "this is a bullshit accusation, let's up the stakes so I can prove my innocence in Court rather than say yes sir and have 'Field Grade Article 15' in my records. Or whatever the hell the Navy equivalent is. I think they call it Captain's mast. (from when sailors were lashed to the mast and whipped for misbehavior)
Typically (in my limited experience), the brass is loathe to push a situation like this because if the enlisted man is willing to risk a full on Court Martial, chances are good that they're in the right.
By JPMcT, at
Tue Nov 24, 11:26:00 PM:
What Mr. ABed actually needed was a double tap to the back of his head. The man was a pig.
I wonder why we don't try the Seals in a public courtroom with defense attorneys who will place them on the stand as a public forum.
What's good for the goose....
By 
, at
Tue Nov 24, 11:31:00 PM:
They should have just killed him and they wouldn't have gotten themselves in this BS. The men & women serving in that hellhole ought to refuse to obey any patrol orders, due to the BS of running this war in a PC manner. They can't court martial all of them. Also since the Marxist in Chief doesn't support them and most likely despises them, I wouldn't obey any lawful order to get myself killed for obongos quandary of how to vote present. The empty suit doesn't have anything to do with the military except to pose for a "photo op" to please his own narcissistic personality disorder. This empty suit is the worse President to have ever sat in the Oval Office.
By Chris, at
Wed Nov 25, 06:38:00 AM:
Of course it's a bad policy. If you can reduce the effectiveness of your military by curbing their natural aggressiveness, then you can limit confrontation with our enemies, thereby reducing the tempo of operations against said enemies.
Of course, if your goal was to reduce the military to a defensive posture, which is what the left seems able to tolerate, then it's good policy, innit?
By , at
Wed Nov 25, 10:12:00 AM:
But, this is Obama's objective; to reduce the effectiveness and efficiency of the US military. We'll see a lot more of this and the logical conclusion is to reduce military spending to balance the budget on his other squandering. At some point, expect "political officers" to be assigned to military units to assess morale and help weed out ineffective officers.
By , at
Thu Nov 26, 12:24:00 PM:
I'm getting really sick and tired of soldiers being prosecuted for doing their job. We need to alter the military justice system and de-lawyerize the chain of command.
There is absolutely no question that spurious prosecutions provide aid and comfort to the enemy. Any time a soldier is prosecuted for actions related to combat and acquitted, the prosecution should be taken into custody and tried for treason. This is not regular criminal law - prosecutors in these cases need to have skin in the game.
By Gary Rosen, at
Thu Nov 26, 04:41:00 PM:
It fits right in with the "crininal" prosecution of KSM. Next thing is we will have to read the enemy their Miranda rights before shooting at them. But that will make people like the US so much more!
By Assistant Village Idiot, at
Thu Nov 26, 09:43:00 PM:
Folks, reread dawnfire's explanation here.
By , at
Fri Nov 27, 09:30:00 AM:
Dawnfires's explanation is well known to any veteran. The point is that the brass IS continuing to push this. As I said (0024/26 Nov), if the soldiers are acquitted - and given their refusal of non-judicial punishment it's nearly certain they will be - there needs to be extremely harsh consequences for those who brought the charges and prosecuted the case. They are committing treason.
