The next time you're tempted to tell one of your Tea Party friends they are exaggerating about the Obama-run government, don't.
Rush Limbaugh makes a joke one day, and the media or the Administration acts it out the next.
Glenn Beck is excoriated for saying Obama is going to fill the government with radicals—and then several quit under pressure because the American people can't stomach their extreme views.
Sean Hannity is poo-poohed by "smart" so-called conservatives like Brooks, Buckley and Frum, saying Obama is not radical, he's moderate, even conservative by "temperament." We get Cap and Trade, Government Motors and Socialized Medicine.
Vince Flynn's latest thriller seems to take a point to the ridiculous extreme when his hero, Mitch Rapp, is hauled before a Senate committee for dislocating a terrorist's shoulder while extracting information in the middle of a massive terrorist attack. A friend chuckled and commented about my review, "I like the point, but that's a bit far."
You might think so, but as Steve Centani reported on Fox News last night, Ahmed Hashim Abed, the Iraqi terrorist who ambushed American contractors, burned their bodies and hung them from a bridge, (which precipitated the Battle of Fallujah) has filed a complaint against the Navy SEAL team that captured him.
A terrorist has a "bloody lip;" the SEALs are being court-martialed
And not because this piece of human debris only has a bloody lip. This is not a joke. Well, it is, but not a funny one.
The 2004 atrocity on the Fallujah bridge became a symbol of the brutality of the insurgency in Iraq. The fact that these men are facing punishment instead of a medal ceremony is a perfect symbol for the futility of the Obama play-acting at war.
Of course, next week Barack Obama will be accepting a medal—and a million bucks. Because the people on the committee expected precisely this kind of behavior from the United States now that he is President.
My head hurts.
An article by Rowan Scarborough on Fox's website lists the three scapegoats to political correctness:
Matthew McCabe, a Special Operations Petty Officer Second Class (SO-2), is facing three charges: dereliction of performance of duty for willfully failing to safeguard a detainee, making a false official statement, and assault.
Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe, SO-2, is facing charges of dereliction of performance of duty and making a false official statement.
Petty Officer Julio Huertas, SO-1, faces those same charges and an additional charge of impediment of an investigation.
What's mindboggling about this, is that the SEALs had handed Abed over to Iraqi custody, and he was returned after making the complaint. The SEALs all deny he was punched while they had him. (So much for the old fighting to the death thing, eh?) It's no secret the enemy would rather be in American custody than Iraqi custody.
So, the SEALs probably did not even give Abed the bloody lip; but this is certainly going to give the Obama Defense Department a black eye.
This is going to do wonders for recruiting. I already know one college student considering OCS after graduation who upon hearing this news said, "Well that option's off the table until we get a real Commander-in-Chief."
The three SEALs were offered a non-judicial punishment called "a captain's mast." A slap on the wrist to be sure, but a long-term derailment of three promising careers. A mark on their permanent records, if you will.
So, McCabe, Keefe and Huertas rejected the plea agreement and demanded to appear before a Court Martial to fight for real justice.
Think it's a stretch to blame Obama for this? It's pretty far down the chain of command, after all.
Look, admirals and generals know what their Commander-in-Chief wants, and know how to curry favor. This is new ground. While many of us were outraged at the Haditha prosecutions of Marines, non-combatants died there. George W. Bush was a war president for 7 years. There were no "fat lip" prosecutions during that time. If you think that's a coincidence…
To paraphrase Indiana Jones, have none of these people EVER seen a World War II movie? Even the Geneva Convention, which the Obama crowd claims to genuflect before, allows you to take non-uniformed combatants out back and shoot them immediately. To extend GC protections to terrorists makes a uniform a target, and not wearing one a distinct advantage.
I'm confident that no court-martial panel made up of warriors will convict these heroes. And they are certainly better off facing a "military tribunal" of sorts than in falling into the hands of the Obama/Holder Justice Department, where this is considered a possible war crime.
Think I'm kidding? Read the Justice Department report on the justification for Holder'spersecution of the CIA.
Note that despite being three of the best-trained soldiers in the world, these three are still not officers. Perhaps they should have lectured their comrades that Muslims around the world should rise up against the Yankee invaders, railed that infidels must be beheaded, tried to turn in other soldiers for war crimes, and reached out to al Qaeda recruiters with telephone calls.
Then, they'd likely be at least Captains by now in the politically correct military.
For enemy morale and recruiting, this is worse than Abu Ghraib, and even the future KSM trial. Our most highly trained commandos, the point of the spear in our fight against the enemy, are being put ON TRIAL for something that would likely have a street cop given a week's suspension. Forget being trained to resist our interrogation techniques, now al Qaeda can just tell their operatives, "If you are captured, just cry 'I have an owie!'"
Today, the Obama-led military has given al Qaeda something to be thankful for. The biggest propaganda victory since the beginning of the war on terror.