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EDITORIAL
Clubbing SEALs
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Updated: Apr. 10, 2012 | 10:11 a.m.
Navy SEALs secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq: the alleged mastermind of the murder of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004.
But three of the SEALs who captured him now face criminal charges, themselves. Why? The poor delicate flower of Iraqi manhood says someone punched him.
The three SEALs have refused non-judicial punishment -- called a captain's mast -- and have requested a trial by court-martial.
Ahmed Hashim Abed, whom the military code-named "Objective Amber," told investigators he was punched by his captors -- and he had the bloody lip to prove it.
Oh, the humanity!
The Fallujah atrocity came to symbolize the brutality of the plainclothes enemy in Iraq. The four Blackwater agents were transporting supplies for a catering company when they were ambushed and killed by gunfire and grenades. Terrorists then burned the bodies and dragged them through the city. They hanged two of the bodies on a bridge over the Euphrates River for the world press to photograph.
Intelligence sources identified Abed as the ringleader, but he had evaded capture until this September.
No, those suspected of atrocities should not themselves be subjected to unnecessarily harsh treatment. But we're talking here about a military operation on foreign soil, aimed at apprehending a vicious combatant accused of murdering and mutilating four American civilians for the "crime" of delivering a truckload of food. If you expect the accused to come along quietly, you don't send the Special Forces.
We are fighting an enemy who jeers at the Geneva and Hague conventions, sawing the heads off civilian kidnap victims with rusty swords while (in the current case) gleefully videotaping the proceedings. Yet elite U.S. SEALs could now lose their careers because the poor captured enemy combatant says someone gave him an elbow in the kisser? We're so worried about the niceties of "arrest procedure" that three brave Navy SEALS will go on trial -- without benefit of the very constitutional guarantees which we will now provide to a separate set of murderous cutthroats in the federal courthouse in New York City?
More revelations will follow, make no mistake. In all likelihood they deprived him of his teddy bear, served him a lukewarm dinner, and also made disparaging remarks about his tribe's sanitary habits and his mother's pulchritude.
This is nonsense. President Obama should publicly send the court-martial board a firm signal of support for the men who brought in Ahmed Hashim Abed.
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I will NOT comment on the right or wrong of whether the SEALs should be punished for what they did. Their chain-of-command obvioulsy thought they did something wrong, offered them the chance to accept non-judicial punishment, which they declined.
Now they are being court-martialed, which is their RIGHT.
What I WILL take exception with is the implication that the SEALs are being denied their rights by this statement: "without benefit of the very constitutional guarantees which we will now provide to a separate set of murderous cutthroats in the federal courthouse in New York City".
EVERY Soldier, Sailor and Marine who is court-martialed receives every constitutional afforded to every person accused of a crime in the U.S.
Further, President Obama has been briefed about this case, and has CORRECTLY KEPT OUT OF IT!
We REALLY do not know what happened when Ahmed Hashim Abed was captured. The court-martial WILL ESTABLISH THE FACTS OF THE CASE, and the jury (yes, persons being court-martialed ARE tried by a jury) will judge whether the force used was excessive.
Being a retired Army officer, I have faith that they will consider all of the facts and will make the appropriate verdict. Once that verdict is rendered, and, if guilty, once the sentence issued, then (AND ONLY THEN) should President Obama intervene if he thinks justice was not done!
That is, after all, what the law calls for. We are a nation of law! Let's allow the legal process to proceed unimpeded, and see the results of the case, before we start calling for a Presidential intervention.
Just my humble opinion!
Rasputin:
Here's a line for you to ponder:
Imagine instead of solders of fortune, these guys represented members of the Italian mafia; ok?
Now, these mafia guys went over to say; Italy and killed a bunch of thugs. You with me?
Now, the thugs return the favor by killing a bunch of the mafia guys, who were/are U.S. citizens; still here?
Now, would you argue that WE as taxpayers should be responsible for paying people to track down and kill the thugs who killed "our" thugs?
THAT sounds like an unconditional lack of rational, linear, thought process to me, but here you are.
This thread is, no doubt, startling in its exposure of the left's unconditional (and, in my eyes, disgraceful) lack of rational, linear thought process.
The people that went and retrieved Ahmed Hashim Abed, the man responsible for not killing, but MURDERING American citizens, are SEALS. Professional military men, highly trained and disciplined. These SEALS are now looking at being tried via a court-martial for following orders and doing their jobs.
So Abed got 'punched in the mouth'.
SO WHAT.
He is directly responsible for the murder and public display of the corpses of U.S. citizens.
And now Abed is going to SUE the SEALS who went and got him?!?!?!
This country is going to hell in a handbasket. And people like patrick are applauding while it happens.
I would tend to side with patrick's original view of this issue. And willingly I admit it's not an informed view. But I concerned when a shadowy quasi-military force is operating and being funded by our government anywhere with little formal accountability to anyone. Remember, a government big enough to give you everything is big enough to take it away.
This is shameless. It compares to jorge bush's treatment of Campion and Ramos, the border guards.
It just destroys my faith in DC politics.
RHG:
No, I don't think you get it; these guys were intentionally unrelated the this country's government.
The former minion of the devil in the White House made sure of that for several reasons the most important of which is that he wanted to use tax payer money to fund a private army that this country wouldn't have to be held responsible for; fine.
Only now, those same idiots who supported this perversion want EVER MORE TAXPAYER money spent to "vindicate" this perversion; I say no thanks.
These solders of fortune knew exactly what they were getting into, and like journalists who venture into war zones and being told that there is nothing that the U.S. government can do to help them if they fall into the wrong hands, these guys understood the same thing.
The only real difference between these two groups is that you and me were PAYING them their outrageous salaries all the while they were out committing atrocities in OUR name.
I have no sympathy for them, and I'm sure they don't want any; good.
But I sure as h#ll don't want one more dollar of my tax payer dollars being spent to vindicate what they did in the name of "free market capitalism"; let Blackwater pay for it!
patrick wrote on December 06, 2009 10:07 AM:
Only a rabid right wing republican, blinded by hatred for this country, would support the expenditure of tax money to protect "private property" in IRAQ, and out of the other side of their face, oppose with their very "soul" the expenditure of tax dollars in this country, but, here they are.
These solders of fortune reaped what they sowed, and they did it VOLUNTARILY, and were PAID for what they did; how can I be obligated to them to spend more of MY money?
Dumb people are God's gifts to the republican party man.
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You just don't get it do you man? This isn't about whether these guys worked for Blackwater or not. The way the SEALS look at it, that could have very well been them hanging upside down from that bridge if they had found themselves in the position these Blackwater guards found themselves in with this murderous character running around looking for American targets to attack.
Common Sense wrote on December 06, 2009 08:52 AM:
"Maybe when the US government realizes they have a shortage of people willing to do this work they will rethink their PC stupidity."
It's a good thought, but you're assuming that the people running our government are there to serve the citizens of the United States. What if that isn't the case? What if our "representatives" actually consider themselves 'citizens of the world?'
What if a shortage of military recruits isn't a "mistake" by politicians, but actually part of an agenda? That shortage might be construed as a "crisis." And that crisis might create a "need" for some type of "assistance" or "partnership" with the United Nations.
Do an internet search for "Hegelian Dialectic."
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Yeah, I thought about this angle also, that maybe all this nonsense is serving an agenda, that agenda being to weaken the US military by making people shy away from enlisting for fear of being prosecuted for doing their jobs aggressively. I certainly would not put that past this administration. I served three years in the US army and to be honest, I don't think I would do it again considering todays political climate.