Climbing Out of the Memory Hole: The Right's Dedication to the Truth

A few years ago, an Army enlisted man writing under the pseudonym Scott Thomas, wrote an article in The New Republic claiming that American troops in Iraq were cracking under the pressure of fighting a virtually invisible enemy. He was, of course, condemned by the right, primarily based on statements made by his sergeant, who swore that he had never seen anything like the chaos "Thomas" reported. "Thomas" was accused of dishonoring the military.

Yes, well: Yesterday, that very same Sergeant was convicted by an American military court of murder. The court concluded that he had handcuffed four Iraqi prisoners before shooting them in the backs of their heads. Two other, lower-ranking members of the unit were also convicted of murder.

The enlisted man who wrote the piece, whose real name is Scott Thomas Beauchamp, continues to serve honorably.

I look forward to the apologies of right wing politicians, bloggers and radio hosts who condemned Beauchamp as a liar and a traitor. Clearly, he was absolutely right about the pressure getting to otherwise good soldiers.

Comments

[Lee]

Separately, we received this statement from Major Steven F. Lamb, the deputy Public Affairs Officer for Multi National Division-Baghdad:

"An investigation has been completed and the allegations made by PVT Beauchamp were found to be false. His platoon and company were interviewed and no one could substantiate the claims."

[Adam]

That the military's investigate process is any less myopically self-serving than, say, the police (home of the famous Blue Wall) is a premise of which I'm skeptical.

My bet is that Beauchamp wrote what he believed (however that measured up to reality) but was too stupid to realize how drastically it would alter its life to see print - and upon finding himself at the center of a storm of attention that might cost him his career, took the coward's way out.

But who knows? It's just as possible Beauchamp was looking for attention, saw his opportunity, realized he overreached, and years later his sargeant and the boys flipped.

[sfcmac]

"...continues to serve honorably..."

Give me a break. His concocted tales denigrated the fellow Soldiers in his unit. He admitted he lied, but not before he served as a useful tool for the anti-war Left. As for 1SG Hatley, an excerpt from my blog:
The full story behind the shooting, and why:

http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/new-york-times-us-soldiers-executed-prisoners/

The frothing moonbats will see this as ‘vindication’ for Beauchamp’s wild-assed tales, (picking on disfigured women, wearing a child’s skull on his head or running over dogs with a Bradley) even though he fully admitted he lied.(http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=545) (http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2008/08/23/the-last-gasp-of-the-new-republics-man-in-iraq/)

His behavior was a disgrace and in no way reflected on the bravery, dedication, and honor of his unit. Beauchamp was and is a punk. His recant came after he succeeded in feeding maws of the anti-military/anti-war moonbats. I also had correspondence with Major Kirk Luedeke, the Public Relations Officer, who explained Beauchamp’s antics in detail.

1SG Hatley’s squad did not go into a village and select unarmed civilians for a summary execution. They chased down four armed terrorists who fired at them; capturing them as well as finding their weapons cache. In retrospect, they should have saved themselves the trouble and killed them on the spot.