Fighting the good fight, part I

I’ve always admired fellow milblogger SMASH. Even if he is a reservist. They guy’s eloquent and persuasive, but most of all he’s like a terrier, completely indefatigable. While too many others (your correspondent, alas, included) often heave a sigh and turn away in despair when confronted with pugnacious stupidity, obtuse opinion, inveterate illogic and bovine bias, SMASH refuses to concede one unsupported inch, instead challenging his critics to attempt to defend what is all too often indefensible.

When someone named Swaraaj Chauhan of “the Moderate Voice” asks of Haditha whether, “It is fair to blame the Marines alone?” before going off on some weird, 60’s Peter, Paul and Mary riff, (BECAUSE OF THE POETRY!) Smash quite rightly raises the proverbial flag:

As a veteran, I really don’t like where you’re going with this.

First, let us acknowledge that there are two official investigations underway, the results of which have not yet been released to the public. If any charges are to come out of this (as appears likely from all the leaked reports), there will be a legal process that must be followed according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. There will be Article 32 hearings (indictments), after which the accused will be formally charged by a military judge, and face Courts Martial.

Just like in the civilian world, they will have certain rights, including the presumption of innocence. Let us not assume that we know everything, and that the Marines (who have yet to be formally charged) are automatically guilty.

Having said that, if they are eventually declared guilty by a jury of their peers, they will have nobody to blame but themselves. Hundreds of thousands of military personnel (including myself) have served in the Iraq theater since March 2003. Most of us managed to escape with our lives, bodies, and honor intact.

Don’t you dare paint us all with the same broad brush. Don’t you dare excuse dishonorable and murderous behavior by blaming it on “the system.”

We are all adults. We all know the rules of warfare. And we are all accountable for our own actions.

Let justice be done, the innocent be exonerated, and the guilty be punished.

Swaraaj pushes back a bit, as is the nature of things, but SMASH, as I said, is a terrier.

SMASH is quite right, of course. There are those who would use what has not yet been proven – not yet been officially charged, even – to tar with broad brush strokes the efforts of hundreds of thousands of service members who have served heroically in almost unthinkable conditions on the mission their democratically elected government sent them to do. They attempt to do so because it fits their narrative. And because it worked before.

The Vietnam veterans never had a pulpit from whence to challenge what became the “Winter Soldier” narrative and popular anti-war consensus. The magnitude of their suppressed frustrations was on graphic display during the last presidential election.

But today’s veterans have a voice. And we will not allow that voice to be shouted down by illusion, ill-faith or error.