November 11, 2003
LET US HONOR OUR SOLDIERS:
US colonel faces Iraq assault case (The Herald, 10/30/2003)
An American officer who "coerced" an Iraqi prisoner into providing intelligence which foiled a potentially lethal ambush on his soldiers has been charged with assault.Lieutenant-Colonel Allen West, 42, of the 4th infantry division, admits firing his pistol twice near an Iraqi policeman.
The colonel's unit occupied an area around Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town and the most dangerous section of the Sunni triangle where most US deaths have occurred since combat ended on May 1.
On August 16, an informant told coalition authorities of a plot to assassinate West, then working with the governing council in Saba al Boor.
A patrol from the colonel's command was ambushed that day and the informant revealed another attack was imminent, naming a policeman as one of its organisers.
West sent two sergeants to arrest the officer, who was moved to a detention centre at nearby Taji airbase.
When initial interrogation failed, the colonel took over the task himself.
He fired two shots from his service automatic into a weapons bin outside the detention facility while the prisoner was held next to it, but insists he kept his body between the Iraqi and the bin.The policeman immediately identified the site of the ambush and named three resistance fighters assigned to carry it out. West informed his superior and passed on the identities of the fedayeen snipers....
The colonel was charged with aggravated assault and offered the choice of resigning his commission and forfeiting 19 years of pensionable service or facing a court-martial....
He has now been relieved of his command and transferred to non-combat duties. Two soldiers who handled the prisoner roughly have been fined.
On this Veterans Day, let us honor not only those soldiers who killed evildoers in the past, but also soldiers like Allen West who this year scared or roughly handled an evildoer to save American lives. If the facts presented in this article are true, then Lt. Col. West has honorably waged war -- and those who would imprison and dishonor him are confirming the judgment of Spengler: we are unwilling to win this war.
The persecution of Lt. Col. West is emblematic of a larger cult of persecution that increasingly permeates the law, especially among plaintiffs' attorneys, and seems to be endemic on the left. It is the cult of finding a scapegoat and punishing that goat: the cult of tearing down people. It professes the aim of deterring evil, but alas, it deters more than the action and person persecuted. Sydney Smith once wrote to Francis Jeffreys: "The whole effort of your mind is to destroy. Because others build slightly and eagerly, you employ yourself in kicking down their houses, and contract a sort of aversion for the more honorable, useful and difficult task of building well yourself." The cult of legalism is the same: its thrust is to destroy, and in punishing others for building imperfectly, it discourages everyone from building at all. Its logical end is a society of inactive and torporous persons -- a society of Monday morning critics, who do nothing themselves, but humiliate and punish a man like Allen West who risks his life on their behalf.
The thrust of Christian spirituality is quite different from the cult of legalism. It forgives sin, yet encourages reaching for the highest standards of excellence: "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone ... Go forth and sin no more." It offers the greatest of rewards -- eternal life in intimacy with Love itself -- as incentive; and condemns the lukewarm. As C.S. Lewis wrote in The Weight of Glory:
"[I]f we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.... We are far too easily pleased."
The Christian spirit is not to persecute mistakes, but to encourage love -- hard work and sacrifice that builds a greater good. There is no greater love than this: to give up one's life for one's friends and countrymen. On Veterans Day, therefore, let us ponder: how can we do more to encourage men like Allen West to risk their lives in the service of their country?
UPDATE: At this site you can sign an online petition in support of Lt. Col. West. (Thanks to Genecis for the link.)
Someone should ask each of the nine echoes what he/she think about this case - I'll bet they will emphasize civilian control of the military and the rule of law. Just like Bill Clinton would say, considering his influence brought this about. The officer to whom West reported should be removed from the theater personally by Rumsfeld, now. And people like those reading this blog need to apply the pressure.
Posted by: jim hamlen at November 11, 2003 9:12 AMWaging war honorably doesn't include officers flagrantly breaking Army rules. The Army has set procedures for interrogating prisoners, including noncombatants and suspected spies: threatening to kill them, then and there, is prohibited. And with good reason. Imagine if the informant had named the wrong policeman. Then Col. West would have threatened the life of an innocent man, perhaps one who had previously wanted to work with the Americans to rebuild his country.
Disciplining the colonel is appropriate, though the punishment seems quite excessive.
Peter - I disagree, first of all, with the idea that all actions of an Army officer, even when threatened with imminent attack, should be rule-bound. If we can't trust our Army officers to use sound judgment and behave ethically, imposing a thick rulebook and enforcing it by courtmartial is unlikely to end our problems. As I argue, the cult of legalism may aggravate our problems.
Second, I have trouble seeing why scaring a prisoner should be against any rules. If he had actually shot the guy, I would support an assault charge. But threatening to shoot the guy seems to me a valid method of extracting information. I think there's little doubt that plenty of al Qaeda captives have been frightened during their interrogations. A New Yorker (I believe) article detailed how interrogators play upon the fears of the captives.
Finally, if the captive had been innocent, his inability to provide information even in a state of fright would help absolve him.
Posted by: pj at November 11, 2003 10:46 AMI encourage all who feel the verdict is out of line go to: http://patriotPetitions.US/colwest
and sign the petition in favor of Colonel West.
This would be a fitting way to honor Veterans Day.
Posted by: Genecis at November 11, 2003 11:47 AMThe guy deserves a medal for helping keep his guys (and others) alive.
This is not a set-piece war with honor all around and cease-fire for holidays. Hello? Military justice people? Got a clue?
Posted by: old maltese at November 11, 2003 5:21 PMNo opinion about the colonel, as I don't know what happened. I do have open on my desk right now Ian Dear's "10 Commando," to the photo of 4 SS guards kneeling next to their victims.
Their British captors then had them dig their own graves and shot them.
Wars are unpleasant.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at November 11, 2003 8:40 PMWhat Harry said. Tough issue for the civilized, but if you pretend that war is like commercial law, you are stabbing your finest and bravest in the back. Is some bureaucrat trying to atone for the pass the US took on the ICC? I sure hope not.
Posted by: Peter B at November 11, 2003 8:49 PMGood for the Brits.
I lived amongst them for seven years; this comes as no surprise.
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at November 12, 2003 4:42 PMCol. WEST's actions are eminently commendable. To Peter's 11/11 (Veteran's Day) post, I point out that the key word in your comment against Col. WEST is "threaten". No harm done. To cause temporary psychological stress to a vicious enemy in order to save U.S. soldiers lives is very very acceptable. U.S. lives were saved immediately and given that there were no further attacks from that town and that additional terrorists scum were captured by the information gained, untold numbers of ADDITIONAL LIVES WERE SAVED-good lives, not evil ones.
Dittos to Peter B.'s post of 11/11 - we must not pretend that the heat of combat is like arguing commercial law.
It is quite hypocritical of most of those punishing LTC West's behavior so vociferously that we are identifying his violation of the laws of war with exceptional stark lines.
Meanwhile the 'victem' was conducting attacks on a battlefield while not wearing a recognizable uniform (law of war violation) and in fact wearing the uniform of a friendly element [police] (thereby qualifying him for treatment as a spy).
According to the law of war; if you violate the provisions; you give up all protections. While LTC Wests actions are not the "ideal" actions the US Army aspires to and he should be prepared for some consequences; if he is prosecuted or punished other than removal from command (a career ending move anyway); then the true criminals are the political hacks running my Army.
We declare this is a war; and some elements of our society will deride our president daily for 'declaring the war over' [which by the way "the end of major combat operations" does not mean a war is over]; yet they simultaneously refuse to allow us to prosecute this action as a WAR.
50 years ago German U-boat sailors disembarked to blow up American ports. They were caught tried and hung. When will we HANG Zacharias Moussaui or any of these other foreign interlopers masquerading as legal immigrants?
Posted by: keith jaminet at November 18, 2003 9:30 PMI think Colonel West did what he had to do.
He admits to breaking the UCMJ.
But even so, prosecuters are given lee way on exactly what cases they will prosecute. This seemed like a good time to use that prosecutorial disgression.
Even still, if one wanted to punish this man, let the punishment fit the crime. The colonel was willing to accept a forced retirement at a lower paygrade, that of major I bleive. His detractors would not allow such, they gave him the option of leaving the military with complete loss of his benefits or to face a courtmartial hearing with the possibility of 8 years in federal jail.
The punishments does not fit the crime. They should have allowed this man who served loyaly, faithfully, and with honor for 20 years to retire and end his military career.
They allow the scum of the earth to plea bargain their cases away. We had a president that pardoneed a huge number of convicted criminals and yet our leaders seem ben on prosecuting a man to the fullest extent to what amounts to possibly bad judgment under an incredibly stressful environment.
It is inuslting to every veteran and every person that has ever worn the uniform of this great nation. It is obviously a political move. The treatment of this man is so disgusting that I can barely think straight.
I commend Col.West for outstanding courage and valor exhibited.He exemplifies a true Patriot.
He did what others only wish they had the courage to do.Under extenuating circumstances he made his stand for his men during WAR conditions. I pray that he is not punished for his bravery.
Those rules are there to prevent people from casually breaking them. As soon as we relax the rules of interrogation, people go right up to the new line and "dance" upon it. If people like Col. West honestly feel they are doing the right thing then they should accept the consequences with a clear conscience, and we should follow the rule of law even though we may think he made the right choice, for the larger goal of discouraging those who don't have good intentions from abusing the system (and potentially other people). A brave person is willing to sacrifice his personal life and liberty for a larger cause, and I refuse to feel sorry for West.
Furthermore, it is not "obviously a political move." Just because you disagree with someone's behavior doesn't mean they don't believe they (prosecutors) are trying to do the right thing. It's really sad you people are so narrow minded that you think anyone who does something you don't like is so cynical or evil.
I should also mention that some of you are very selective about your Bible teachings. The Bible says we must obey the law, that everyone is our neighbor, and "as ye do to the least of these, so ye do to Me [Jesus]." It also says "thou shalt not kill," for those of you bragging about how great it is to "kill evildoers."
Posted by: Jane at May 11, 2004 7:29 PMScrew the soldiers. Every last one of them who was involved must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
The typical understanding of RULES OF ENGAGEMENT are "You better hope that you never get 'bad' orders from senior officers" If bad orders are followed, then they ARE responsible.
These monsters in our military have disgraced our country (it would have been hard to imagine that anyone could do a better job than Bush, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft), the military and the entire line of command in this horrific scandal has disgraced the United States. It is an absolute joke, and has exposed this war for what it is really about. It is NOT, and never was, about liberation. Only idiots here could swallow that garbage, and only ethnocentric idiots will turn a blind eye to it now.
I do not believe that America will have a more shameful scar than what we are facing now.
Congrats, I believe someone is going to top the disgrace of Vietnam.
Screw the soldiers. Every last one of them who was involved must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
The typical understanding of RULES OF ENGAGEMENT are "You better hope that you never get 'bad' orders from senior officers" If bad orders are followed, then they ARE responsible.
These monsters in our military have disgraced our country (it would have been hard to imagine that anyone could do a better job than Bush, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft), the military and the entire line of command in this horrific scandal has disgraced the United States. It is an absolute joke, and has exposed this war for what it is really about. It is NOT, and never was, about liberation. Only idiots here could swallow that garbage, and only ethnocentric idiots will turn a blind eye to it now.
I do not believe that America will have a more shameful scar than what we are facing now.
Congrats, I believe someone is going to top the disgrace of Vietnam.