Do you think LTC Allen West was railroaded?

COL Carl Jensen — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 17:52:34 -0400

The court of public opinion is now in session. I often wonder about what would I have done if placed in the same situation. Protect your men from harm at what cost? Had it been in Viet Nam would it ever had been brought up or even known about? The dark secrets are many, but I am not looking to hear about them. I'm not a priest. Its a woulda, coulda, shoulda thing question at most.

Response by CWO3 Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 3 at 2021 5:54 PM

CWO3 Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 17:54:37 -0400

Response by LTC Kevin B. made Jul 3 at 2021 6:03 PM

LTC Kevin B. — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 18:03:23 -0400

Not at all.

Response by SPC Jesse Davis made Jul 3 at 2021 6:11 PM

SPC Jesse Davis — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 18:11:49 -0400

No. He's every bit the scumbag he appears to be.
Being conservative not only doesn't change that, but kinda just underlines it.

Response by LTC Eugene Chu made Jul 3 at 2021 6:25 PM

LTC Eugene Chu — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 18:25:30 -0400

1. His wrongful methods for interrogation did not actually extract any meaningful information
2. LTC West leniently received an Article 15 instead of facing a court-martial
3. LTC West was still able to retire with full benefits despite the incident being on his record

https://web.archive.org/web/ [login to see] 0044/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/27/world/struggle-for-iraq-interrogations-colonel-risked-his-career-menacing-detainee.html?scp=1&sq=How%20Colonel%20Risked%20His%20Career%20by%20Menacing%20Detainee%20and%20Lost&st=nyt

THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: INTERROGATIONS; How Colonel Risked His Career By Menacing Detainee and...

In western Broward County, where Lt. Col. Allen B. West, 43, is preparing to start life over as a high school social studies teacher, the grass is green, the air is moist and the pressure is

Response by CW4 Guy Butler made Jul 3 at 2021 6:34 PM

CW4 Guy Butler — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 18:34:18 -0400

About as much as I believe Geraldo Rivera wasn’t thrown out of Iraq with extreme prejudice in 2003.

In other words, no. Not at all.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 3 at 2021 7:41 PM

1SG Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 19:41:39 -0400

No. He got off easy.

Response by SFC Casey O'Mally made Jul 3 at 2021 10:22 PM

SFC Casey O'Mally — Sat, 03 Jul 2021 22:22:08 -0400

SO, I have a couple of thoughts about this.

First, in 2003, Iraq was the Wild, Wild West. Abu Ghraib had not yet happened. Rules for interrogation existed, but they were not widely known or enforced. There was VERY much a prevailing attitude of "get it done, and don't bother me with the details." In light of that, LTC West's actions were not SO FAR off the reservation as many like to portray.

On the flip side of that, however, LTC West himself, testified that he knew what he was doing was wrong. He states that he was doing it to protect his Soldiers, but doing the wrong thing for the right reason is still the wrong thing. The most convincing - and the most horrifying - villains in the story books are the ones who believe they are the good guys. Heck, a significant portion of the terrorists LTC West was fighting against thought they were doing bad things for good reasons.

So..... Do I think that he may have been made an example of as a more easily "proveable" case to warn everyone else who was doing (or thinking about doing) similar things? Quite likely. Do I think there are PROBABLY folks out there who did worse and got less punishment, or none at all? Absolutely. But do I think he got railroaded? Absolutely not. He knew what he was doing was wrong, and chose to do it anyway.

I was in Iraq in 2003 - in intel, no less. We had an NCO who was making similarly wrongful decisions regarding interrogation methods. I reported it. I got fired. This was about 2 months before LTC West's incident.

Response by MAJ Byron Oyler made Jul 5 at 2021 9:43 AM

MAJ Byron Oyler — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 09:43:35 -0400

No he was not. He was the BN Commander and sets the climate and stage for close to a thousand soldiers. What is troubling to me is the fact this made it to legal. He either had someone in his inner circle looking to punch their own ticket or he had done as bad or worse in the past and they could not look past this one.