In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Pentagon chief fires Navy secretary over SEAL controversy
Ricci Wright
Member Posts: 8,259 ✭✭
WOW!!
Comments
Some just need to be reminded who it is.
^^^^THIS^^^^^ and in this case, the President of the United States is THE BOSS of all in the US Military Service. Generals and Admirals should NEVER forget they took/followed ordered to attain the rank they hold.
We have enough gun laws, what we need is IDIOT control.
Blood makes you related. Loyalty makes you family.
I thought getting old would take longer. :shock:
If he felt that strongly he should have resigned over it and not run his face, same with the Admirals.
Just one of his bad decisions. His departing letter indicates his true feelings. He was part of the swamp.
EDIT: The ah just won't shut up. Just keeps digging his grave.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/ousted-navy-secretary-says-trumps-012304253.html
Well Trump had a Television Series named Apprentice and used "Your Fired" everywhere ! It's getting surreal up there in D.C. Poor Guy is still in his own world. How many people have left his administration? Dozens I bet!
serf
Serf, one of these days you and all the libtards will suddenly remember that the Donald is a master of the Reality TV genre and his entire campaign and Presidency has been scripted to provide Circus to the masses.
OK how do you know it better? Because you spent 5 years in the Marines and made CPT? What did you do in the USMC? He flew stuff, he was an Aviator.
Then he was on wallstreet and made millions..........good job.
I just don't understand why these guys can't keep their mouth shut.
Posing for a photograph with the severed head of an enemy combatant does not bother me in the least. If our war fighters even want to use the empty skulls of our enemies to drink a pint of ale, more power to them!
Bravo, Chief Petty Officer Gallagher!
We had a no photo policy in my unit. When pictures are made then they can be not only used against you but be misinterpreted by people who have no fricking clue about anything.
I have enough jacked up crap in my head that I damn sure don't need to be reminded of it with pictures. Plus its a violation of OPSEC IMO.
But stuff happens and the leaders need to take into account not everyone is perfect.
The problem is when whatever is going down everyone is fine with it, then ONE guy starts thinking and spills to some person who was not there and it gets blown all out of proportion. I have seen it happen several times.
Couple of things, Mike.
1. He was not tried in a civilian court. He went through a court martial, and was found not guilty of the murder of the captive after one of his shipmates testified that it was not Gallagher's slitting the guys throat, rather that he killed the captive by blocking his airway.
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/06/24/gallagher-court-martial-pathologist-cant-say-what-killed-prisoner/
From the link:
SAN DIEGO ? A pathologist testified Monday at a Navy SEAL?s murder trial that a wounded Islamic State militant in Iraq could have died from a stabbing described by other witnesses.
Dr. Frank Sheridan said he couldn?t determine a cause of death because there was no body and a lack of other evidence.
The testimony at the trial of Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward ?Eddie? Gallagher, though, countered a statement offered last week by another SEAL who stunned the court when he confessed to the killing.
Corey Scott testified Thursday that he killed the victim by plugging his breathing tube after Gallagher unexpectedly stabbed the fighter while treating him for injuries suffered in an air strike outside Mosul in 2017.
Scott testified that the militant, described as an adolescent boy, would have survived the stabbing.
But Scott said he decided to asphyxiate him because he assumed he would later be tortured and killed by Iraqi forces who captured him and brought him to the Navy medics for treatment.
https://taskandpurpose.com/seal-chief-gallagher-isis-execution
From this link:
For example, prosecutors introduced text messages from Gallagher to Chief Warrant Officer 2 B.G., in which he said, "I got him with my hunting knife" with the photo of him with the dead ISIS fighter. B.G. replied, "be careful with pictures." And another text message from Gallagher to another active-duty SEAL, according to Warpinski, referenced "getting his knife skills on."
People can believe what they wish to believe. I am sensitive about what people in my Navy do, are accused of doing, and when they are unjustly treated.
In this case, there are some things that most folks agree are factual.
1. An iswas piece of human garbage was injured in an air strike, captured, and turned over to a Seal Team medics for treatment.
2. During this treatment, Gallagher stabbed the captive an undisclosed number of times.
3. The captive died, and Gallagher posed with the corpse. (Some say he posed with the head, but this seems to be in dispute, so I do not consider this to be factual information.)
4. Gallagher went through Court Martial proceedings, and was acquitted of the murder because of Scott's testimony (Please note that Scott had received full immunity prior to testifying), but convicted of posing with the body.
IMO, Secretary Spencer approached this correctly at first, when he said he would resign if Gallagher was fully exonerated by President Trump. His oath includes 'according to regulations and the UCMJ', and it is 100% logical that and honorable man would walk from his job if he felt he was given orders that would compromise this clause.
It then appears that Spencer tried to have his cake and eat it too by backdooring SECDEF and trying to cut a deal with POTUS in order to remain SECNAV. If this it true, he has lost any claim to honor.
All members of the US Armed forces should be held to a professional standard of conduct. Transgressions can be forgiven when in contact with an active enemy. Transgressions against a captive over whom we have complete control cannot be forgiven.
I cannot speak to whether this one incident should define his entire career. He should, however, be forced to face the consequences of his actions, and (again, in my opinion) Trump stepped into this with a political motivation and has not considered the long term ramifications of the precedent that is being sent with this exoneration.
Brad Steele
Military personnel also don?t have constitutional rights, per say. They have the rights afforded to them from the UCMJ. You don?t have double jeopardy rights, and if caught, and tried ?out in town?, you can be tried for it again in a military court.