The Three Navy Seals - more of "Determined Weakness"?
And it fits - I have yet to see a single policy or action, domestic or foreign, that has yet to actually show strength: massive borrowing will cause our financial demise, dithering on Afghanistan causes our military to lose heart, the rising unemployment due to his Stimulus is giving rise to a redeux of the "Carter Malaise", revealing our intelligence secrets causes our most at risk agents to go "I'm not sticking my neck out". Couple that with "Dissing" our long term allies and we'll soon see that we will be on our own (the exact policy that The Won accused Bush of doing) as no one will work with us.
Determined Weakness - what better way to make the US no better than any other nation in the world?
The last few days, the news broke that three Navy SEALs based with SEAL Team 10 out of Virginia, have been threatened with military misconduct in capturing a high value target in "Operation Amber" - Ahmed Hashim Abed, the mastermind behind the killing, multilating, and making a media circus of the Blackwater security guards in Fallujah in 2004 that were ferrying supplies on behalf of our efforts in Iraq. They stalked him, they tracked him, they caught him - and kept him alive for further interrogation and actions. Their misconduct?
Dear 'ole Ahmed is claiming a bloody lip by the SEALs.
In the process of getting him, he could have easily been killed - case closed if that had happened. But in doing the better thing, it looks like these SEALs are going to get the shaft of their own trident for doing their jobs well.
Once again, SEALs, some of the most highly trained Special Ops we have, are being threatened for doing their job. Frankly, this shows the mind set of the Administration - is this action a war or is it simply a law enforcement operation? One doesn't use SpecOps folks for the latter - only the former. Doing so, and threatening to bring them up before an "Admiral's Mast" (usually for less serious misconduct) sends a bad message: do your mission, achieve your goal, and you may end up getting second guessed and political corrected. In other words, you will get in trouble if you do your job - yeah, that would make me real motivated to risk my life...Determined Weakness.
These upper brass fools (from what I have been able to gather from looking around the 'Net), fearing a political backlash from above, decided that they could get away with a handslap - declaration of guilty, a small hand slap, and move on.
Perhaps I'm a bit naive, but I believe that these SEALs are not going to let that quaint notion of "honor" go quietly into that good night.
Further from Fox:
AUDIO OF NEAL PUCKETT, ATTORNEY OF MATTHEW MCCABE: It's incredibly unfair given the lack of severity of the alleged misconduct.
CENTANNI: When Abed was captured, he was brought to Camp Baharia, a U.S. base just two miles outside Fallujah. According to one attorney in the case, Abed was turned over to the Iraqis by mistake and was later returned to U.S. custody. There are differing reports that he was punched in the gut and was hit in the face.
PUCKETT: The possibility is that the blood was caused by a self-inflicted wound to his face so that he could later claim that he was abused.
CENTANNI: The defendant's lawyers are trying to get government evidence, including any medical exams or photos. A Navy SEAL who was part of the team that captured Abed and later saw him in custody filed a statement saying, "I gave the detainee a glance over and then left. I did not notice anything wrong with the detainee, and he appeared to be in good health." The SEALs could have had an administrative hearing, facing no possibility of jail time or dishonorable discharge. But instead, they chose a court-martial that could, if they're convicted, land them behind bars and end their military careers.
TOM KENNIFF, DEFENSE ATTORNEY/FMR JAG LAWYER: Now what the soldiers are basically doing is calling the military's bluff saying, hey, we want a trial, we want to exonerate ourselves.
Me? I certainly would defend myself - you have actual details? Prove it. As in the above, could it have been the Iraqis? Could it have been self-mutilation? Sure! But whose word would you take - an admitted Al Quaeda operative or a SEAL Team unit? I'm going with the latter...
Longer term message - SEAL / SecOps life is terribly hard, difficult, and lonely as it is. Why would these brave souls want continue in that life
Just as with the CIA folks that the Administration has already put at risk....and killing off their morale for the simple task of trying to keep the rest of us safe...
Who is going to stand up for these protectors of America?
Certainly, the 'Grok (FWIW); as you might guess, the milblogs are all in an uproar as well (and being far better connected, they have more intel to be more angry than most of us).
Comments
Posted by: judy | November 30, 2009 11:29 AM