Risking all for the unworthy

Our brave soldiers have been sent into one of the most difficult combat situations imaginable. Daily they confront highly trained and heavily armed terrorists that cannot be distinguished from the population they are seeking to liberate.

They are in a strange culture with an inscrutable language and cannot discern who is friend or foe. If they mistakenly attack the friendly population, they run the danger of turning the delicate, begrudging tolerance “the friendly Iraqis” have for their presence in Iraq. Yet the intensity of attacks with ever more lethal weapons continues to grow daily.

In this most confusing and dangerous combat situation, politicians – from the safety of their Washington offices – and non-combatant officers send out “politically correct” orders as to how they are to conduct themselves.

One brave and resourceful officer, seeking to protect his troops in the dangerous so called “Sunni Triangle,” became aware of a planned ambush and possible assassination attempt against him and his battalion. His name is Lt. Col. Allen B. West, a battalion commander of the crack 4th Infantry Division.

Through information provided by an informer he discovered that a policeman in the area had been involved in prior attacks on Americans. Col. West personally conducted part of the interrogation of the prisoner. The captive was neither tortured, nor injured, but he was frightened. A pistol was fired twice in an ultimately successful effort to convince him to reveal what he knew about the planned ambush.

The man was never in danger of being injured but he was certainly frightened. Part of what caused him to be so frightened was his experience with the Muslim terrorist groups of which he was a part. They did not bluff. If they threatened to kill a prisoner, they did it. A number of our soldiers taken as prisoners were executed during interrogation.

In this case, the prisoner’s only injury was to soil his pants. But based on the information that was extracted from the prisoner, Col. West’s battalion turned the ambush into a rout. And there have been no more attacks in that area.

In addition, two other terrorists were apprehended as a result of the information provided by the detained Iraqi. One of them was the father of the man interrogated by Col. West for his Saddam Fedayeen affiliation.

In view of all this, it is almost incomprehensible what has happened to Col. West. He’s been charged by the staff judge advocate of the 4th Infantry Division of communicating a threat and aggravated assault under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice.

Norman Turner of the Sierra Times reports:

This criminal action by the hierarchy of the Army would be ludicrous if it were not so tragic to Col. West and his family, not to mention the morale of our troops in combat. To deny a combat field commander reasonable and effective, non-injurious methods to interrogate a terrorist in a death-threatening situation is insane. The man was not even a prisoner of war.

Almost as crazy as having such a policy in the first place is the lack of judgment by the generals above Lt. Col. West who could have refrained from pursuing this butt-covering legal action.

These bureaucratic ticket punchers are the sort of officers that this country could well do without. The insidious odor of ‘political correctness’ permeates this case. Apparently it is better in the minds of those presently at the top of the Army food chain to sacrifice the 19-year career, and possibly the freedom, of a dedicated operational commander than to face possible criticism by loony leftist, blame-America, bleeding hearts.

No such niceties of an outdated interpretation of the Geneva Convention have been afforded our soldiers since World War II. We are at war. When will Americans wake up to that simple fact?

We must not stand by and let this brave soldier’s life be ruined for seeking to do his duty to the best of his ability and protect the troops who are under his command. I hope you are as outraged as I am. Write a letter to your congressmen and protest this outrage. Or else demand that we bring our soldiers home.