Why should this take more than 30 Seconds?
Apparently the Commandant of the Marine Corps is wrestling with a heavy decision.
U.S. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway is deciding what to do with the dereliction of duty case against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, the Camp Pendleton officer accused of failing to order a full-scale investigation into the slayings of two dozen Iraqi civilians in the city of Haditha in 2005.
Conway got the case in late May, after the Marine Corps gave up its appeal of a military judge’s ruling that unlawful command influence illegally tainted the case against Chessani.
The Marine Corps appealed that ruling on two occasions and was considering a third appeal before deciding to let Conway determine the next move in the Chessani saga.
“He (Conway) will consider the matter carefully,” Maj. David Nevers at the Marine Corps’ Pentagon headquarters said, adding there no was firm date for when Conway would announce his decision.
Conway’s options include dropping the case entirely or appointing a new convening authority to consider whether a new investigation should be ordered. He also can pursue a non-criminal administrative action against Chessani, who commanded the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, at Haditha when the civilians were slain by Marines after a roadside bombing.
So what the hell is the problem there Jimmy-Boy?
Anything short of dropping the case entirely will expose you as a slimy politician who cares more about covering Pete Pace’s ass than you care about saving a Marine officer’s life.
Category: Politics
I pray that he does the right thing and drops the case… The undue influence was not by Gen Pace, btw
I agree that Conway needs to end this charade right away, but he is most likely considering the likelyhood that if he drops the appeal on the Chesani case, then charges will most likely be dropped in the Ssgt Wuterick case also. If Unlawful Command Influence was there in one case, it was there in all cases.
Great site by the way. I’ve always seen your stuff when posted by Blackfive, but visited for the first time yesterday.
COB6 Wrote: I appreciate the comment. Welcome aboard the the TAH train.
This shouldn’t even take 30 seconds. Exactly how long does it take to drop said paperwork into the circular file?
So how can a man rise to the level of Commandant of the Marine Corp need time to think this over. LTC Chessani, as well as way too many others, have been dragged through hell and back by their own. Good grief. Set a fire to the paperwork and allow the man to live his life. His career has already been ruined for NO GOOD REASON.
I’m going to need blood pressure meds if all of this assinine insanity keeps up like it has of late. Scotch doesn’t seem to work anymore.
COB6 Wrote: Don’t give up on the Scotch; I can schedule an intervention!
TB, a good single malt DOES help. I agree with Geoff in #2, I’m sure they’re trying to figure what effect this will have SSG Wuterich’s case, more than anything.
COB6 ~ and intervention? Heck no!
UpNorth ~ ONLY single malt. And, yeah, I understand the SSG Wuterich “issue” but how much more UNFAIR damage/punishment IMHO can LTC Chessani take? Grrrrrrrrrrrr
So how does one case effect the other if the circumstances are different? I’m pleading ignorance here, I don’t know/haven’t done the research on the Ssgt Wuterick/Wuterich(sp) case.
BTW Tankerbabe, COB6, and UpNorth I’m enjoying a glass of Glevlivet 12 year old at the moment while watching my Red Wings hopefully win game 3. My sister was kind enough to give me a bottle of Glenfiddich 20 to celebrate a Stanley Cup win with…..cheers!!!
So how does one case effect the other if the circumstances are different? I’m pleading ignorance here, I don’t know/haven’t done the research on the Ssgt Wuterick/Wuterich(sp) case.
BTW Tankerbabe, COB6, and UpNorth I’m enjoying a glass of Glenlivet 12 year old at the moment while watching my Red Wings hopefully win game 3. My sister was kind enough to give me a bottle of Glenfiddich 20 to celebrate a Stanley Cup win with…..cheers!!!
Sorry for the double, tried to catch a spelling error…..
I have to say that I have more sympathy for Wutrich than I do for the LtCol.
If they have to drop both cases then, I guess they should.
OT, TB, et al,
First, single malt is the ONLY Scotch. Blended is NOT Scotch.
Second, the Unlawful Command Influence is a fairly big deal. Typically this involves a commander taking a position on an event as opposed to a particular person. This means that if the unlawful influence effected one person in the event, it effected all. It can’t be argued otherwise.
I realize that the whole case falls apart when Conway dismisses this but I think it’s the right thing to do.
The downside for him is that a whole bunch of folks that are responsible for Conway’s rise were also likely involved in the undue command influence.
I am going to preface this by saying that this comment is based entirely on a character judgement. Take it for what its worth.
I served with the MEF during the ’03 invasion. The unit was commanded by General Conway. I found him to be a fair and understated commander. I trust he will make the right decision. However, I am uncomfortable with the blame for the entire Haditha incident being cast off on SSG Wutrich.
“Blame”? WTF, over? No court of competent jurisdiction has found anything that needs blame so far. Or have you bought into the Murtha fantasy?
Read comment 2 above. If the logic is he can’t drop charges against the officer because it would have implications against the SNCO, then yeah blame is the word.
I DID read #2 above. As I said, No court has found anything that needs blame placed on anyone. And no one has said Gen. Conway has taken this long to decide, because he doesn’t want to influence the case against a SSG. Anyway, other than Murtha, no one, so far, has said that the Marines did anything wrong. Other than what has been laughingly called an investigation into the incident.
From quote number 2 above:
“I agree that Conway needs to end this charade right away, but he is most likely considering the likelyhood that if he drops the appeal on the Chesani case, then charges will most likely be dropped in the Ssgt Wuterick case also.”
It seems that Geoff Mike is saying that General Conway si considering the implications of the two cases.
More than 20 inncocent civilians were killed. Obviously someone did something wrong. The question is about culpability. Wuterich did what he thought was right based on limited real world experience. I can’t say that I would not have done the same thing. Thus if there is any culpability (and I am not saying there is) it lies at a higher level than a single Staff NCO.
20 “innocent” civilans? By whose account? I find it, at the least, interesting that no autopsies were performed, and the evidence is based on the accounts of other Iraqis. None of them would have an agenda, right?
Maybe you’d agree that possibly the insurgents may have killed the “20 innocent civilians”, just for the purpose of pointing at yet another massacre of muslims by the infidels?
Have they made a choice yet, because I ran into this link.
http://www.thomasmore.org/qry/page.taf?id=106&_function=detail&sbtblct_uid1=734&_nc=7459df56575e7d83f432c57432cc3392