“We can’t all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.” — Will Rogers, (1879-1935) American humorist and actor.
One important element I learned in military service was to follow orders, if for no other reason than to not be punished. The law the military lives by, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, is not exactly your everyday law lived by everyone else in this great nation of laws called the U.S. of A. Those who have lived under this code might find this understatement worth a chuckle. Others who know not of what I speak can just kind of take the statement as is or however they choose.
A politician whom some say is a hero of the Iraq War is in a bit of a verbal tussle for speaking rather ill, unattractively and certainly impolitic for one who has the tag — whether or not deserved — hung around him as a hero. Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, said some things that just seem out of place for a southerner who represents a Florida district which includes West Palm Beach. His target of ire is Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who also represents a nearby Florida district.
The war of words came from, what else, the debt limit argument between the Ds and Rs.
Wasserman-Schultz said during a debate on the debt limit that she found it difficult to believe West would vote to cut Medicare benefits for thousands of his constituents who, as is the case in the congresswoman’s district, depend on Medicare. West, our hero, responded with an e-mail calling his Florida neighbor and colleague “the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the U.S. House of Representatives.” Delivering a real blow as a southerner, the retired colonel told the congresswoman that “You have proven repeatedly that you are not a Lady, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me!” Yow!
So much for a person who was once commissioned by the Congress as “an officer and a gentleman.”
In fact, actions by West prove that he wasn’t much to write home about on the “officer” side as well.
You might or might not remember West as he was one of the first, perhaps the only, “right-wing” hero of the war that the right wing started in Iraq for no real reasons of national security. West was an artillery battalion command for the 4th Infantry Division in Iraq during a 2003 deployment. As was the case with other soldiers in Iraq during the war, West would incur duties that had nothing at all to do with his training or experience. In one instance, West was involved in the questioning of an Iraqi civilian police leader.
Heavily redacted investigations documents, show that West admitted that the police officer was beaten by the lieutenant colonel’s subordinates during questioning because the suspect was being “evasive and beligerent.” West admitted during his own questioning that he witnessed “sporadic body punches” given by his underlings to the man being questioned although West did not “allow (it) to get too brutal.” West finally unholstered his 9-mm pistol after the colonel said he had “had enough and this is where it would end.”
West said under his own questioning for his military law investigation that he fired his pistol about a foot from the Iraqi’s head after pushing the police leader’s head near a “clearing barrel,” used to “clear” a round in a gun in an unknown status by firing it into a barrel with sand before entering a building or other area. West admitted under questioning that firing his gun near the suspect’s head did not break his suspect. In fact, the Iraqi didn’t talk after his beating and having a 9-mm pistol shot into a barrel next to his head. West said the “man inside him probably did want to inflict hurt” on the Iraqi although he was just trying to gather intelligence for his men.
Superiors of West awarded him a “non-judicial punishment,” meaning not a court-martial and charges against the career officer were not considered felonies against the U.S. Government. West was find $5,000 and allowed to retire.
What a hero, huh? Maybe some say so, but that was not the way troops, especially leaders of West’s rank, are supposed to act. West became a Tea Party darling and now he hurls invectives at a fellow congressional member who is also from a neighboring district.
My complaints here aren’t so much of Allen West’s insults at Rep. Wasserman-Schultz. The congresswoman is a pretty tough lady, if you ask me. She went through a number of surgeries fighting breast cancer. A battle she has survived while serving in Congress. I think that’s pretty damned heroic in itself. The words used by West are pretty civil considering some debates I have had. But this is not the way folks are supposed to act in the U.S. Congress. If you think different, then perhaps you should get your lackey there to get it changed.
No, my main irritant is someone like West who is treated like a hero, yet he can’t pass the deportment grade in the military and puts other troops in danger with his cowboy actions. Plus the fact that this so-called hero shows his mettle by insulting a fellow member of Congress and a neighbor. If this is the kind of “hero” you want ruling your country, perhaps you should consider moving even more South into the Banana Republics.
A note of interest I found while researching this story: A little Wikipedia Kung Fu was a-happening. Allen West’s Wikipedia site had as a last sentence on the first paragraph stating that the congressman was to “the right of Genghis Khan.” That was changed before I concluded my post to something less excitable. I didn’t closely read Rep. Wasserman-Schultz’s WIki entry but looking at an entry about her congressional district I noted that it was represented by her and home to a high concentration of gay and lesbians, and gay neighborhoods. Whether that came from West or Wasserman-Schultz, I don’t know, nor do I care.
