Pushback

Pushback:

A post on LTC West, on the occasion of the SEAL story from yesterday.

I have great sympathy for the military lawyer, who must enforce the law even when he doesn't think it's right. It was probably worth making that point to troops leaving for Iraq: even if he thought you were right, he'd still have to prosecute you. There's probably an interesting moral argument to be made on the subject of a commander choosing personal legal consequences to putting his soldiers at greater physical risk; or on the duty of a man, and an officer, to obey the law versus the duty of a commander to his men.

The SEALs plainly decided that they preferred to fight rather than accept what felt like injustice out of the law. I don't know what the result of the procedure will be, but I can see that LTC West is -- if anything -- liberated to fight even harder. I hope that, whatever comes of the SEALs' case, they are able to continue to serve the Republic according to their conscience.