CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, December 2, 2019

Rough men versus soft lawyers

When it comes to President Trump’s thinking about the Navy’s strange prosecution of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher and some other SEALs, this quote from George Orwell comes to mind: "We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."

Yes, our Navy SEALs, Delta Force operators, Army Rangers and Special Forces are very rough men who take exception to the beheading of innocents and to putting pilots in cages and setting fire to them. In fact, our rough men, who reek of macho-male toxicity, have been visiting violence on those who would do us harm.

That, however, did not sit well with some female lawyers inside the Navy’s JAG Corps who decided our rough men should be brought to heel. Apparently, thinking the ends justify the means, they got NCIS investigators to coach and shape the testimony of interviewees. They used malware to listen in on discussions between Chief Petty Officer Gallagher and his lawyer. They hid a video clearing Gallagher of murder. And when a Navy Corpsman, under a grant of immunity, confessed that he killed the POW, not Gallagher, they pressed the case anyway. The presiding judge had to admonish the prosecutors for misconduct.

Then, after Gallagher was tried under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) by a jury of his peers and acquitted of all charges except for posing in a photo showing a dead terrorist, the Navy tried to give the team of prosecutors Navy Medals of Achievement for losing their case-in-chief. Is it any wonder that these antics drew the attention of the Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces?

When the admiral in charge of the Navy’s special operations decided to make an example of the acquitted Gallagher by convening a board to deprive Gallagher of his treasured Trident symbol of his SEAL-hood, President Trump had more than enough of the nonsense, tweeting that the Navy would not deprive Gallagher of his Trident.

Apparently, the civilian Secretary of the Navy was not familiar with Article II of the U.S. Constitution and the powers granted to the President as Commander-in-Chief. He also made the mistake of going around his immediate boss, the Secretary of Defense, trying to cut a phony deal with the White House staff. A deal that would let the Navy hold the review panel, for the sake of appearances; however, it would be foreordained that Gallagher would not lose his Trident.

Now, there’s a real scheme to undermine "good order and discipline" in our military. The Secretary of Defense (not President Trump) fired the Secretary of the Navy for violating the chain-of-command, not to mention his dishonest cockamamie scheme.

Of course, all this was lost upon the Democrat’s presidential candidates and their hand maidens in the mainstream hate-Trump media.

Memo to President Trump: Screen future appointees using this question: "When the President says jump, what do you reply?" Only appoint those who know the correct answer. And what is the lesson our rough men will draw from all this? Your Commander-in-Chief has your back. Go visit even more violence on those who would do us harm.

©2019. William Hamilton.

William Hamilton, is a laureate of the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame, the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma University Army ROTC Wall of Fame. Dr. Hamilton’s Formula for Failure in Vietnam: The Folly of Limited Warfare was published on November 20, 2019. To order, call toll free: (800) 253-2187 "Central View," can also be seen at: www.central-view.com.

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com