LTC Allen B. West will get what amounts to a slap on the wrist for doing the right thing in the wrong manner. I call this justice.
He received a non-judicial punishment for his trouble, which is, granted, the kiss of death for the career of a commissioned officer in our Armed forces, but I think it is a justifiable and a compassionate sentence. He will also be allowed to retire with full benefits.
LTC West understood that when you have two bad choices, you pick the one with which you can sleep at night. This is something that his chain of command apparently understood as well. Allowing the colonel to walk away scot-free was not an option, not for a force that values good order and discipline among its members. However, the men and women in his chain also knew that to punish LTC West any further would, ironically, undermine the good order and discipline that is so highly valued. If you can’t count on your commander, who can you count on?
LTC West’s commanders took the least bad choice as well and I congratulate them.
No doubt, the colonel has a bright future ahead of him.
(SIDENOTE: One wonders where Jesse Jackson and the NAACP were when the time came to speak out for LTC West--a black man. Maybe they were too busy defending the “legacy” of Nathaniel Jones, who wasn’t fit to shine the colonel’s boots.)
(Thanks to The Spoons Experience, who communicates with LTC West’s legal counsel)
