Green Beret who beat up accused child rapist can stay in Army

[branford]

46. A military board has similar discretion to civilian prosecutors.

They did not have to pursue the most severe penalty, or any penalty at all, as the OP clearly demonstrates.

There's a difference between law and justice, and not every infraction needs to or should be pursued. While you may certainly believe the soldier should have been separated from the military, the majority of other people clearly disagree.

Keep in mind that the political pressures well exceeded mere sympathy for the soldier striking a known pedophile. As you note, the solider and many other military members and civilian consultants are heavily involved in training and supporting the Afghani military and government, to say nothing of the many billions of American taxpayer dollars funneled into the country to ensure reforms. It's widely known that the sexual assault of children and women is often tolerated, excused or ignored in Afghanistan, but rarely discussed here to due the outrage it would engender and the public questioning why we are helping these people without doing anything to stop such atrocious conduct. The soldier quite wisely has attempted to garner as much notoriety and media attention as possible. It's no doubt true that the American public is sympathetic, but our military and civilian administration most certainly also don't want to repeatedly discuss the myriad of very sensitive issues that would have lead to the soldier's discharge, particularly with all the lingering political discontent concerning our involvement in the country and region.

The Afghan government and local authorities similarly don't want to discuss how a local police officer raped a child and assaulted his mother with apparent impunity, no less deal with the political and military implications if anyone under their authority attempts any reprisals.

I'm also most certainly not encouraging vigilantism. The suggestion is absurd. People respect a criminal justice system that properly and fairly deals with offenses. A defective or nearly non-existent system is what encourages vigilante justice. If the Afghans legitimately sought to identify and punish child rapists and let it be known such conduct would never be tolerated, the soldier's reaction might have been viewed in a far different light. Simply, context matters. Hopefully, the attention and embarrassment from this entire incident will indeed foster legislative and cultural change in Afghanistan, although I am not particularly optimistic.