SGT. EDDIE GALLEGHER FOUND “NOT GUILTY”. EMBARRASSES USA

WE SHOULD HONOR THOSE OF SEAL TEAM 7 WHO BROUGHT CHARGES

Navy Seal Team 7,  Alpha squad, staff sergeant Eddie Gallagher was fund ‘not guilty” of all criminal counts against him today. Except the crime of posing in a picture with his brutally murdered 15 year old Iraqi victim.  If the jury had not convicted him of the lesser crime—a charge that SIMPLY could not be ignored— supported by a  widely available photographic RECORD OF BOTH perp and victim— the apparent  “kangaroo court” would probably have cleared him of that as well.

Gallagher was accused by the US Navy of war crimes while on duty in Iraq in 2107 for using his sniper rifle to target and kill an innocent elderly man and a young girl, and, as well, firing a large caliber machine gun into a densely occupied residential area.  Another charge was of brutally stabbing a 15 year old Iraqi fighter in the neck and chest while he was incapacitated and being treated for his wounds by a US medic.  After killing the youth, Gallegher posed for a picture with the victim’s bloody corpse.  

In a military trial in Sand Diego today, (July 2, 2019) Gallagher, 39 years old,  was found not guilty on all counts (except for the photo crime).  As Americans we should  ashamed of the results.  We can be proud of the men of Navy Seal Team 7 under Sargent Gallagher’s  command who had the courage and decency  to complain to their Navy superiors about what they considered disturbing, dishonorable and illegal behavior of their their immediate superior, staff sergeant Gallagher.  They are the ones we should be honoring for bravery and for service to their nation.

Gallagher, who, in spite of the obvious, well-documented and well known charges of disobedience of orders or engagement, as well as  ignoring international rules of war, and apparent acts construed as war crimes was  lionized as a “war hero” and protected by too many on FOX news, as well as the GOP right wing, and 40  US Congressmen who signed a letter of support for him as a “hero’ warrior.  Shame on them as knee jerk morons.

In truth Gallagher (and those who have looked the other way to ignore his crimes) has embarrassed the US Navy, Seal Team 7 and the vast majority of his fellow US. citizens who when they send men to war, they expect them to act in accordance with our laws—not to become thugs and brutes who kill innocents indiscriminately and succumb to their most base emotions of rage and revenge.

Perhaps the example of our first Commander In Chief, General George Washington, who during the latter years of the Revolutionary War faced an enemy—aware that victory was slipping away—and encouraged or ignored horrible acts of  brutality— we would class as war crimes today.  Washington made a point of never responding in kind to these incidents.   In the face of these atrocities he was always mindful of his honor, his righteousness, his duty to his cause and to his countrymen.   Our modern warriors and their commanders would be wise to remember the wise and honorable precedents General  Washington set.