The disturbing allegations of Navy Seal misconduct
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Democrat
Colorado Springs, CO
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Arizona has covered part of the Navy Seal story under Trump Tweets because of Trump's firing of Richard Spencer, the Navy Secretary, and Trump's follow-up tweets on the matter. I won't revisit that discussion. However, the New York Times has now published an article on the personal accounts of the Navy Seals who turned in Chief Eddie Gallagher for his alleged misconduct. As we know, the case became public because of Trump's intervening on behalf of Eddie Gallagher, whom he called a "war fighter". Rather than continuing to cover this story under Trump Tweets I have started a new thread. New York Times, December 27, 2019: Anguish and Anger From the Navy SEALS Who Turned In Edward Gallagher A few excerpts from the Seals of what they observed about Gallagher's behavior. “The guy is freaking evil,” Special Operator Miller told investigators. “The guy was toxic,” Special Operator First Class Joshua Vriens, a sniper, said in a separate interview. “You could tell he was perfectly O.K. with killing anybody that was moving,” Special Operator First Class Corey Scott, a medic in the platoon, told the investigators. "SEALs who spoke to Navy investigators painted a picture of a platoon driven to despair by a chief who seemed to care primarily about racking up kills. They described how their chief targeted women and children and boasted that “burqas were flying.”" In one incident, platoon members say they saw Gallagher fatally stab a wounded teenage Islamic fighter with a hunting knife. Photos of the event show "Chief Gallagher, surrounded by other SEALs, clutching the dead captive’s hair; in one photo, he holds a custom-made hunting knife...“I think Eddie was proud of it, and that was, like, part of it for him,” Special Operator Miller told investigators." Chief Gallagher was acquitted of all but one charge in the civilian deaths because of inconsistencies in the stories by his fellow Navy Seals. The single minor charge related to the photographing of the teenage fighter that he had stabbed. However, what makes the story more disturbing is the follow-up claims of total innocence by Gallagher. “My first reaction to seeing the videos was surprise and disgust that they would make up blatant lies about me, but I quickly realized that they were scared that the truth would come out of how cowardly they acted on deployment,” Chief Gallagher said in a statement issued through his lawyer. “I felt sorry for them that they thought it necessary to smear my name, but they never realized what the consequences of their lies would be. As upset as I was, the videos also gave me confidence because I knew that their lies would never hold up under real questioning and the jury would see through it. Their lies and N.C.I.S.’s refusal to ask hard questions or corroborate their stories strengthened my resolve to go to trial and clear my name.” You know the rest of the story of how Trump has made Eddie Gallagher a celebrity...a "war fighter". "Rick Haas, a retired command master chief who served in the SEALs for 30 years, said in an interview with The Times. “The teams are now divided over this, like I’ve never seen happen before.” " And there you have it. The Divider-in-Chief has sought to use Eddie Gallagher's misconduct to his personal advantage and divide our most elite fighting force.
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Schmidt: As I mentioned previously, Gallagher's lawyer also has done work for the Trump organization, which may explain why Trump recently entertained Gallagher at Mar-A-Lago, ************************************************************ "And there you have it. The Divider-in-Chief has sought to use Eddie Gallagher's misconduct to his personal advantage and divide our most elite fighting force." Long ago, Abe Lincoln illustrated why it's important to get rid of Trump as soon as we can: A house divided against itself, cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%27s_House_Divided_Speech Through most of our history, our country has been divided about one issue or another. In my lifetime, one of the prime examples has been support for, and opposition to, the Vietnam war. Trump has emboldened the truly crazy people in our society (the Walmart shooter in El Paso is just one example), but he has made it virtually impossible for people in opposite parties in congress to even attempt to work together. Ted Kennedy and John McCain would argue with each other loudly and frequently, but they respected each other as people. People like Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, and Mitch McConnell have no interest in working with the Democrats. Until we get all of them out of office, our government will continue to be non-functional, which is why the congressional approval rating is 22%, and it has been as low as 12% since Trump has been in office: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia%27s_Polling_Index:_Congressional_approval_rating Trump's approval rating has never been above 45% - but it also has never been lower than 40%. Our MOST popular congress was the one in office immediately after the 9/11 attacks, and even people in New York were considered to be "nice people:. The LOWEST approval rating was 9%, in November of 2013, immediately after the government shutdown of October 2013, which was largely caused by Ted Cruz, and his attempt to de-fund the Affordable Care Act. https://news.gallup.com/poll/1600/congress-public.aspx It's also interesting to look at America's most popular, and least popular, senators. Bernie Sanders still tops the list, but Amy Klobuchar is in the top 6. Mitch McConnell is one of the worst, and there is only on senator who is worse. https://morningconsult.com/2019/01/10/americas-most-and-least-popular-senators-q4-2018/
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Democrat
Colorado Springs, CO
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Arizona -- You mentioned above that the Vietnam war divided Americans of that period. One of the worst war crimes of the war called the My Lai Massacre occurred on March 16, 1968. From Wikipedia: "Between 347 and 504 unarmed people were killed by U.S. Army soldiers...Victims included men, women, children, and infants. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated as were children as young as 12. Twenty-six soldiers were charged with criminal offenses, but only Lieutenant William Calley Jr., a platoon leader in C Company, was convicted. Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was originally given a life sentence, but served only three and a half years under house arrest." The Navy Seal revelations of today are not on the scale as the My Lai Massacre, but nevertheless show some similarities that must be addressed. Gallagher had eight combat deployments before his alleged crimes were outed by his own platoon. I wonder about the psychological impact on the minds of some soldiers when they have so many deployments into "killing zones". Perhaps, but it also seems that Lieutenant William Calley Jr and Chief Eddie Gallagher share an aggressive, hateful attitude towards their enemies brought on by seeing so many deaths of their comrades. Indeed, both seem to have drawn the ire of those under their commands. As the Wikipedia source states, "A number of men assigned under Calley claimed he was so disliked that they discussed fragging him." In Gallagher's case, 7 out of the 12 members of Gallagher's platoon testified against him and Gallagher has suggested that they had animosity towards him. Perhaps, but the facts are there, and one has to wonder what might have transpired on the battlefield to make Gallagher commit the alleged atrocities. The way Gallagher has behaved since his exoneration, denying everything and calling his fellow seals who outed him liars, suggest a psychological profile perhaps not unlike that of Trump himself. As I have never served in the military, I am not qualified to cast judgment on those who risk their lives every day. But I do know that a lot of men and women who do wear the uniform, do so honorably and would never engage in the kind of war crimes attributed to Calley and Gallagher.
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