Political correctness gone mad in the U.S. Navy: Navy SEALs on trial for giving a terrorist a fat lip
It was not so long ago that Americans and the rest of the world marveled at the ability of the U.S. Navy SEALs to take out the pirates holding a merchant ship captain captive on a life boat off the coast of Africa.
To prevent the pirates from killing the captain, the SEALs had to shoot them as they sat on a small boat swaying in the sea. The SEALs took this amazing action from the deck of a nearby Navy ship, which was also swaying in the sea – no small feat indeed.
Yet, the U.S. Navy has now placed on trial three Navy SEALs who captured a well-known, brutal and murderous terrorist in Iraq. Instead of a medal for capturing him, the Navy has accused the SEALs of abuse. You see, the poor, misunderstood terrorist claims he was struck by the SEALs.
I just read an interesting piece in the WashingtonTimes by Jeffrey T. Kuhner on this incident. Kuhner writes that the military is so afraid of another prisoner abuse incident and has become so politically correct under the Obama Administration, that they found no issue with an Army Major e-mailing a known terrorist recruiter and agitator (both are Muslim), but they want to court martial the SEALs for giving a terrorist a fat lip.
I agree with Kuhner’s assessment – even if one of the SEALs did punch him, big deal.
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Don’t you watch Chris Matthews? I mean, it’s not a crime to email Al Qaeda right? But it is a crime to punch a terrorist in the mouth- if indeed they did so, and the SEALS say they didn’t.
On the other hand it’s not a crime to shoot teenage Somali pirates in the head. And it’s not a crime to send robots in to Pakistan to blow up women and children as well as your legitimate military targets. in fact, I believe that’s what Joe Biden calls a strategy more or less.
We live in confusing times, Paul. Just submit, and it will all feel much better.
No, I don’t watch Chris Mattews. I don’t think I could stand hearing him describe the tingling feeling going up his leg whenever he sees or hears Obama.
I served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and later served as a Defense Department civilian. I retired in 2007 after 37 years of military-civilian service.
I can tell you that the American military does not kill indiscriminately. The American military takes great pains to avoid killing innocents, often at the risk of our own troops.
Yes, the pirates were teenagers, but they were also heavily armed and they were threatening to murder the merchant captain. They were not sweet kids and they may have very well killed others in their past.
Many of the Somali killers of our troops in the “Black Hawk Down” incident were also teenagers. Many of the American Rangers killed in the attack were also teenagers (and I was only a teenager during my tour of duty in the Vietnam War).
The SEALs, like a police officer in Philadelphia or any American town, took proper, authorized lethal action to prevent the death of the captain.
As for unmanned drones, they are guided by highly trained military people who attempt to avoid killing innocents.
Innocents do get killed in war, but the difference between Islamic fanatical terrorists and the U.S, is that we try to avoid the death of innocents, while the terrorists specifically target them.
We are at war with Islamic fanatical terrorists. I worry that the Obama Administration does not that seriously enough.
One last thought – I believe that if a SEAL had in fact punched the terrorist, the terrorist would be suffering from much more than a fat lip…
The accusations are nothing more than minutae flung out from the bucket in these webcentric times. Hey ~ there’s a new thing out there, it’s called the World Wide Web and there needs to be content 24 hours a day that can compete with cable TV and the 24 hour news, so we have to generate that content. In the end, be thankful for war. It will develop the new technologies that your children can go to work on after high school or college. Embrace the chaos.
No doubt Paul- I agree with everything you say.
I think this — “if a SEAL had in fact punched the terrorist, the terrorist would be suffering from much more than a fat lip…” — is the best argument about the whole thing. I’ll be using it extensively. Although I also agree with Peter that the whole thing may have gotten a little blown out of proportion for the sake of the drama that our news outlets seem to rely on a lot more than hard facts.