Trump's Intervention in SEALs Case Tests Pentagon's Tolerance

[demmiblue]

He was limp and dusty from an explosion, conscious but barely. A far cry from the fierce, masked Islamic State fighters who once seized vast swaths of Iraq and Syria, the captive was a scraggly teenager in a tank top with limbs so thin that his watch slid easily off his wrist.

Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher and other Navy SEALs gave the young captive medical aid that day in Iraq in 2017, sedating him and cutting an airway in his throat to help him breathe. Then, without warning, according to colleagues, Chief Gallagher pulled a small hunting knife from a sheath and stabbed the sedated captive in the neck.

The same Chief Gallagher who later posed for a photograph holding the dead captive up by the hair has now been celebrated on the campaign trail by President Trump, who upended the military code of justice to protect him from the punishment resulting from the episode. Prodded by Fox News, Mr. Trump has made Chief Gallagher a cause célèbre, trumpeting him as an argument for his re-election.

The violent encounter in a faraway land opened a two-year affair that would pit a Pentagon hierarchy wedded to longstanding rules of combat and discipline against a commander in chief with no experience in uniform but a finely honed sense of grievance against authority. The highest ranks in the Navy insisted Chief Gallagher be held accountable. Mr. Trump overruled the chain of command and the secretary of the Navy was fired.

...

When the captive was killed, other SEALs were shocked. A medic inches from Chief Gallagher testified that he froze, unsure what to do. Some SEALs said in interviews that the stabbing immediately struck them as wrong, but because it was Chief Gallagher, the most experienced commando in the group, no one knew how to react. When senior platoon members confronted Chief Gallagher, they said, he told them, “Stop worrying about it; they do a lot worse to us.”

The officer in charge, Lt. Jacob Portier, who was in his first command, gathered everyone for trophy photos, then held a re-enlistment ceremony for Chief Gallagher over the corpse, several SEALs testified.

A week later, Chief Gallagher sent a friend in California a text with a photo of himself with a knife in one hand, holding the captive up by the hair with the other. “Good story behind this, got him with my hunting knife,” he wrote.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/30/us/politics/trump-seals-eddie-gallagher.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Jesus, Gallagher is a psychopath. I also wonder why the medic changed his story.

[RKP5637]

1. tRump's kind of person. n/t

[beachbumbob]

2. trumps purpose in life is all about paybacks, so didding the military is at top of list and what no

better way in doing that AND pissing off democrats/liberals as well

I expect no less from trump. Hopefully the military personnel sees this too for what it is

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

3. K&R

[Haggis for Breakfast]

4. "They do a lot worse to us."

Is NO justification for this unconscionable behavior. Gallagher is psychotic and has obviously been in the field for far too long. It is sad that his behavior went unnoticed for so long. I'll wager this was not his first indiscretion.

Simply because he was the most experienced commando in the unit does not excuse the others from failure to report him up the chain of command and take action. One of our most sacred rules is that you SHALL refuse to follow/allow an unlawful command/order/behavior to go unreported.

His time in service means nothing if he fails to respect The Code. Nothing.