Articles by Herschel Smith

Joseph Casas, lawyer for Jodka (one of the Camp Pendleton 8) reports that he believes that the prosecution has a faulty understanding of the facts.  He questioned the interrogation tactics, stating that Jodka was interrogated for 7.5 hours non-stop, no water, no food, no restroom breaks.  Recently out of boot camp, when a Marine sees someone in charge (Casas said “suit”), his trained instinct is to obey orders (he was referring to the alleged “confession”).  Casas stated that the government would like you to think that there is a confession, and they have spun it that way, but that there is really no confession.  Finally, he said that they would move to suppress certain documents that were being called a confession.

Will continue to post updates (or new posts) on this as we proceed forward.

Mark Levin has this to say about the torture of the two GIs:

Meanwhile, two kidnapped U.S. soldiers were apparently brutally tortured and murdered today. And the question I pose to those who rightly honor the Greatest Generation is this: What would our country have done 60 years ago in response to this war crime? How would our political and military leadership have acted? By all accounts, they would have demanded severe retaliation and retribution. And by that I don’t mean “bringing the perpetrators to justice,

I made a phone call to Camp Pendleton I discussed here, asking why the Camp Pendleton 8 were in shackles without charges having been filed.  Now, I see that they have been charged.  Folks, I will weigh in later on this issue, but for now a brief note on the charging of the Camp Pendleton 8.  A comment was left on another post by Sanda and Dennis Leslie as follows:

We were outside Camp Pendleton on Saturday, June 17, with more than 300 people in support of the eight Marines. The media have ignored this. What will it take to bring this travesty to the attention of the disinterested public?

Thank you for this thoughtful comment.  June 17 was prior to the eight being charged, but this comment was left after the eight were charged.  Now, I do not profess to know the truthfulness of the accusations (nor do I know that the accusations are false).  The information we currently know seems to me to be highly problematic.  See this post at Riehl World View for more details.  Michelle Malkin has been tracking this story too.  What I do know is that most Americans have been a part of the legal process before, whether involving jury duty, answering for a speeding ticket, or something more serious.

We have all seen the turning of the wheels of justice.  Needless to say, the process is not without its hickups, its bumps and grinds, and its hitch in its git-along.  Many of us know a juror who said, “I wish I had known that before I voted on his guilt (or innocence).”  Many Americans have seen evidence excluded, or evidence fabricated.  Many Americans have also seen biased jurors.  And this is with American witnesses and in civilian affairs.  Now, add the problematic nature of the witnesses and the hatred for Americans that some Sunnis in Iraq have, and the process becomes even more clouded, in my opinion.

I did not, nor do I now, believe that it was justified to hold these men in the brig.  I think it is absurd to believe that they were actually a flight risk.  In my opinion, they get the benefit of the doubt until and unless there is overwhelming and highly compelling evidence of their guilt.

Do I trust the system?  Maybe — maybe not.  The system is not perfect any more than the people who are part of it are perfect.  As to the comment by Sandra and Dennis, I would not look for the main stream U.S. press to come to the aid of these men in uniform.  Since when has that ever happened?

I have just spoken on the telephone with Lt. Gordon James Klingenschmitt.  It was a pleasant conversation, and the Lt. seems to me to be a sensible, amicable and educated man — certainly not a maverick .  He is facing court martial because he prayed in Christ’s name while in uniform at Lafayette Park.  There are many issues we are going to cover in the coming weeks on this story.  I will not let it die, no matter how small my blog is.  I will keep writing on this.  The facts will be laid out in detail in the coming days here at the Captain’s Journal; I recommend that you go to Klingenschmitt’s web site for further information.  But right now it seems appropriate to me to begin this coverage with a statement by one of my heros, Justice Antonin Scalia, from “Scalia Dissents,” Kevin A. Ring, Ed.:

“Church and State would not be such a difficult subject if religion were, as the Court apparently thinks it to be, some purely personal avocation that can be indulged entirely in secret, like pornography, in the privacy of one’s room.  For most believers, it is not that, and has never been.  Religious men and women of almost all denominations have felt it necessary to acknowledge and beseech the blessing of God as a people, and not just as individuals, because they believe in the “protection of divine providence,” as the Declaration of Independence puts it, not just for individuals but for societies; because they believe God to be, as Washington’s first Thanksgiving Proclamation put it, the “Great Lord and Ruler of Nations.”  One can believe in the effectiveness of such public worship, or one can deprecate and deride it.  But the longstanding American tradition of prayer at official ceremonies displays with unmistakable clarity that the Establishment Clause does not forbid government to accommodate it.”

I should also mention that I had sent a letter to the Marine Corps Times editor, who in turn sent the letter to the Navy Times editorial staff.  I received a request via e-mail from Deputy News Editor of the Navy Times, Mr. Philip Creed (pcreed@atpco.com, or 703.750.8747) to use my letter in an upcoming issue of the Navy Times.  I responded in the affirmative, and added that I was a Milblogger.  I later sent another note to Mr. Creed asking if the letter had been used, and he responded back that it had not (without explanation).  But earlier this letter was picked up by The North Carolina Conservative which published it on June 21, 2006.  This version of the letter included another web site that links to a strong response to the same thing attempted in the Air Force.

We will cover this document, Lt. Klingenschmitt’s court martial, and the details of the case in the coming weeks.  You will get to see the Constitution under attack from the very people who are sworn to defend it.  I will also cite the Oath of Enlistment that every Soldier, Marine, Sailor and Airman takes.  My son took it prior to Boot Camp at Parris Island.  I go into his room to read it often.  In the coming weeks, you will have the opportunity to compare this oath with the actions of the senior leadership within our military.  You can judge for yourself how they stack up.

I have just spoken on the telephone with Lt. Gordon James Klingenschmitt.  It was a pleasant conversation, and the Lt. seems to me to be a sensible, amicable and educated man — certainly not a maverick .  He is facing court martial because he prayed in Christ’s name while in uniform at Lafayette Park.  There are many issues we are going to cover in the coming weeks on this story.  I will not let it die, no matter how small my blog is.  I will keep writing on this.  The facts will be laid out in detail in the coming days here at the Captain’s Journal; I recommend that you go to Klingenschmitt’s web site for further information.  But right now it seems appropriate to me to begin this coverage with a statement by one of my heros, Justice Antonin Scalia, from “Scalia Dissents,” Kevin A. Ring, Ed.:

“Church and State would not be such a difficult subject if religion were, as the Court apparently thinks it to be, some purely personal avocation that can be indulged entirely in secret, like pornography, in the privacy of one’s room.  For most believers, it is not that, and has never been.  Religious men and women of almost all denominations have felt it necessary to acknowledge and beseech the blessing of God as a people, and not just as individuals, because they believe in the “protection of divine providence,” as the Declaration of Independence puts it, not just for individuals but for societies; because they believe God to be, as Washington’s first Thanksgiving Proclamation put it, the “Great Lord and Ruler of Nations.”  One can believe in the effectiveness of such public worship, or one can deprecate and deride it.  But the longstanding American tradition of prayer at official ceremonies displays with unmistakable clarity that the Establishment Clause does not forbid government to accommodate it.”

I should also mention that I had sent a letter to the Marine Corps Times editor, who in turn sent the letter to the Navy Times editorial staff.  I received a request via e-mail from Deputy News Editor of the Navy Times, Mr. Philip Creed (pcreed@atpco.com, or 703.750.8747) to use my letter in an upcoming issue of the Navy Times.  I responded in the affirmative, and added that I was a Milblogger.  I later sent another note to Mr. Creed asking if the letter had been used, and he responded back that it had not (without explanation).  But earlier this letter was picked up by The North Carolina Conservative which published it on June 21, 2006.  This version of the letter included another web site that links to a strong response to the same thing attempted in the Air Force.

We will cover this document, Lt. Klingenschmitt’s court martial, and the details of the case in the coming weeks.  You will get to see the Constitution under attack from the very people who are sworn to defend it.  I will also cite the Oath of Enlistment that every Soldier, Marine, Sailor and Airman takes.  My son took it prior to Boot Camp at Parris Island.  I go into his room to read it often.  In the coming weeks, you will have the opportunity to compare this oath with the actions of the senior leadership within our military.  You can judge for yourself how they stack up.

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Here I addressed the increase in voters who will vote socialist policies into place.  After quoting from “Contours of the Mexican Left,” I said:

The coming years will see a cataclysmic shift in the political scene in America with the addition of millions of voters who have been trained to believe that they are “oppressed

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Below I made a post concerning the movement of U.S. troops into Ramadi to “set up shop.”  If you check out one of the sources, you will read that:

Soldiers expected that insurgents would eventually fight back in this city so dangerous that large swaths go unpatrolled. As soldiers dug into their positions, some took bets on how long it would take insurgents to start fighting back in force. 

In the post I discussed my view of the movement of U.S. forces into Ramadi, contrasting it with how we cleaned Fallujah.  It is clear that we are not taking the same approach.  We are using a much more surgical approach, wishing to avoid the massive civilian exodus that preceeded our operations in Fallujah.  Will this work?  Only time will tell.  But when it is finished, it will be considered a stroke of master strategy or a catastrophic failure.  I do not believe that there will be an in-between.

We hear somewhat contrasting reports, from AC130 gunships taking out insurgents, to civilians being told to stay in the city, to soldiers setting up shop and taking bets on when they were going to be attacked.  It is playing in the Arab-sympathetic press this way (the Arab Monitor, Italy):

Baghdad, 18 June – Hundreds of US occupation forces, aided by Iraqi armed forces, are on rampage in Ramadi. The troops are controlling all access points to the city which has been cordoned off since 10 June, deprived of water and electricity. US military airforce is repeatedly striking at residential areas, while ground forces roam through the streets calling on the residents to evacuate the city.

So it has been reported that we are calling on residents to evacuate the city.  Over at NPR, we get another perspective on Ramadi:

I don’t think they can fathom what it is like to be mortared for three days straight in a camp. I don’t think they can realize the scope and magnitude of operations that go on on a daily basis here in Ramadi. You know we kind of laugh at the fact that the big news for Fox News is that a roadside bomb has gone off in Baghdad somewhere, whereas we get seven that go off here in one day or we kill 40 insurgents in one day and it doesn’t even make the news.

So where is the U.S. Press?  A major operation is going on.  Our boys are in harm’s way.  The tactical approach is different than it was in Fallujah, but the desired outcome is the same.  Are U.S. forces sitting in a hole waiting to be attacked and taking bets on when it will happen?  What kind of strategy is that?  Are residents being told to stay home or evacuate the city?  Are Spectre gunships taking out insurgents?  Are we patroling the city yet?  How many troops are there?  Are we succeeding or not?

This is an embarrassing and abject failure on the part of the U.S. press.  Don’t believe me?  Do a google search on Ramadi news.  See how many hits you get from U.S. news outlets.  It is deplorable.  News should be about news.  Let’s get going, professional press.

Update #1: The Strategy Page is reporting a little on the Ramadi offensive, saying in part:

June 19, 2006: Iraqi and American troops have surrounded and moved into Ramadi, a town that has long been a stronghold for Sunni Arab nationalists. Ramadi has become a magnet for terrorists, because of the many pro-terrorist neighborhoods there that will shelter them. Suicide car bombs, and terrorists in general, have been traced back to these Ramadi neighborhoods, and the new operation appears to be directed at shutting down some terrorist cells.

The new leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq is now running a largely Iraqi force. But the al Qaeda strategy has apparently not changed, yet. Sunni Arab death squads and terrorists continue to attack Shia Arabs. But the Shia Arabs who predominate in the police and army are fighting back. There are also more Shia Arab death squads, although some of the Sunni Arabs murdered are still dying at the hands of radical Sunni Arab nationalists trying to terrorize moderate Sunni Arabs into supporting terrorism. Many Iraqi Sunni Arabs are determined to fight to the death, to either regain power, and control of the oil wealth, or die trying.

This post at the Strategy page is not up-to-date enough to show that the two U.S. soldier’s bodies have been found.  However, these two young men are mentioned in the piece.  God bless their families.  They are heros, and they died protecting our country.  But rather than pray for the boys in Ramadi hunting insurgents or the folks who are hunting the people that did this (could they be the same?), the folks over at Daily Kos go a-handwringing over Iraq in general again.  They talk to themselves, about themselves and without communicating much (other than their love of themselves and hatred for all others).  And all the while, the press sits idle while there is a major offensive going on in Ramadi. Someone wake up from this drunken slumber, please. Let’s clear our heads and pray for the boys.  Someone in the U.S. press — could you please tell us what is going on over there?  Could we forget about ourselves if only for a minute?

Update #2: The Marine Corps Times weighs in on Ramadi, telling us just a little bit more, but not much.  In part, the article says:

U.S. commanders said the move wasn’t the precursor to a rumored offensive to drive insurgents from Ramadi — but rather an “isolation

Hat tip to Jihad Watch, the WP issued an article that contained a copy of a cable from the Iraqi Embassy that paints a different picture — more bleak — than the one painted by Bush soon after he arrived in Iraq.  Read it here.

In what appears to be a much more surgical approach than Fallujah, U.S. forces are setting up shop in Ramadi, one of the most dangerous places in Iraq (Marine Times story).  Apparently, setting up shop — with all of the related patrols, sniper killings of insurgents, and weapons cache findings — is expected to work.  Time will tell if this succeeds or if Ramadi devolves into an IED zone that our boys have to brave.

Update #1:

It looks like the report above is accurate.  It is also reported that:

Yesterday US troops conducted a similar operation, erecting two outposts in the southern half of the city to allow Iraqi soldiers to begin patrolling an area that has rarely seen any US or Iraqi forces.

US commanders said the move yesterday wasn’t the precursor to a rumoured offensive to drive insurgents from Ramadi – but rather an “isolation