Navy SEAL Found Not Guilty of Assaulting a Suspected Terrorist

Last trial finished - all acquitted...

This is fantastic news.

Hopefully on the way out he gave a towel head oral herpes and punch him in the mouth.

That's a bitch.

AWESOME! BTW were these the guys (at least one of them anyway) who punched a known terrorist in the stomach?

God forbid! I bet none of us have ever been punched in the stomach and survived it! Such behavior totally excuses the insurgents chopping off our heads and using them for hood ornaments.

I'll bet the SEALS snuck in a wedgie/short sheeting their beds on their asses too on occasion!

You mean their undercover careers or something else? They can go into training roles or something else but they probably have limited use in the field.

Please die.

Yeah, god forbid someone punches a fuckhead in the face for being a fuckhead.

Contrary to what a lot of people think, the courts martial conducted under UCMJ give defendants a fair shake. As Frontline pointed out that does not mean their are no consequences for what happened. One thing that continues to separate "us" from "them" is that we make an effort to set standards for conducting war and make an effort to hold people accountable when those standards aren't met. The system in the end worked, messy and unstatisfying as it may be in some ways.

Honestly, I don't get it. Are you saying they're really guilty or that they've done something that brings dishonor or worse on the military? Why would this ruin their entire careers? Sure, there's a gap in their records but is the system so biased against them that just being charged with something is going to destroy them regardless of whether the charges are borne out?

Just being charged is enough to ruin many careers military or civilian regardless of the outcome of the case.

In regards to my own profession.

How many teachers do you think are able to get teaching jobs in the same state if they are ever charged with a sex offense? Regardless of conviction.

I just wanted to make sure that's what frontline was talking about. I'm sure that's it.

Its the dishonor / questionable behavior bit / the idea that there might have possibly been a kinda sorta criminal act. It's the military mindset / culture. Fuck up enough to get dragged to a court martial and your career is just about over.[/QUOTE]

So there is more to it than just what I was thinking. Sounds like you're saying you're guilty if court-martialed even when you're found not guilty. That's really messed up, especially in light of the defense a lot of us gave these guys the first time around. There were the usual suspects who say the U.S. military is automatically guilty of the worst things we can even suspect them of. But this means that "we have met the enemy and he is us."

Really, really messed up.

In The Army we have "fuck up + move up." Can't beat that!

Is that where they promote someone just to make them someone else's problem?

Yup. Once a SEAL is that public, his days as a SEAL are limited to the training schools.

Shit floats to the top was the phrase we used.

That was the first thing I thought of in 6 but frontline seemed to indicate something more sinister in his response.

True but having a conviction on their records along with a dishonorable discharge would have resulted in life in civilian world being very hard.

At least this way they can get good jobs when they leave the military.

totally off topic but the answer to that particular question is - it happens FAR more often than one would expect.

There's nothing sinister about it. These guys know the score when they sign on. Part of the deal they agreed to is that they are going to be held to a different standard in their conduct and that the consequences of getting caught up in a public firestorm are greater for them than anyone else. They have a greater chance of getting killed, getting captured, getting tortured than anyone else and they know it and they still volunteer.

I have an idea some patreotic business owners will be quite anxious to step up and offer what might well be BETTER jobs than they would have gotten otherwise.

often when a person is in the news for what is ultimately precieved to be unfair treatment, someone steps up and makes a nice offer to help that person out.

I totally understand the need for these types of operatives to stay as out of the public eye as possible. That's why I suggested a teaching role or something similar (non-operational) after this. Frontline was going even further by saying that even though they'd been proven as having done nothing wrong, they'd still be treated as if they had by their peers. That goes beyond "signing up for a tough job". That's just wrong.

Blackwater is probably hiring.

Blackwater is now known as XI.

Don't conservatives like to tell poor people and the great unwashed that "life is unfair"?

I would wager that at least 2 of the 3 of them have such a bad taste for the military in their mouth right now that they have no plans to stay in anyway. They can make a hell of a lot more money doing private defense contracting work anyway.