No, Beauchamp is still a liar (Updated with DU quotes)

Some of you may have heard that Scott Thomas Beauchamp’s former First Sergeant, turned Master Sergeant, John E. Hatley was convicted yesterday of the murder of four Iraqis and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Some on the Left are calling this a vindication of Beauchamp’s faerie tales – like Susie Mandrak at Crooks and Liars who writes;

If you cannot place the name, Master Sgt. Hatley was the direct superior of Pvt. Scott Beauchamp and the person most used to discredit (along with the gay porn star) the New Republic diary of the life of a soldier in Iraq and the ways they dealt with the pressures of Operation Clusterf*ck. All of which Hatley said was absolutely not what his ever virtuous soldiers did.

In February, another military jury convicted the unit’s medic, Sgt. Michael Leahy Jr., 28, of premeditated murder and sentenced him to life in prison. On March 30, Sgt. First Class Joseph P. Mayo, 27, pleaded guilty to murder and received a 35-year sentence.

Military legal experts said the soldiers’ rank showed the frustration of fighting insurgents who blended in with the locals.

Which was exactly the subject Scott Beauchamp was writing about.

First of all, Susie, the First Sergeant isn’t a direct supervisor of a soldier on the line – in fact he isn’t even in the soldiers’ chain of command. 1SG Hatley wasn’t “the person most used to discredit” Beauchamp. Beauchamp was the person most used to discredit himself, along with all of the members of his unit. I’m not lessening the effect that SFC Cheryl McElroy (your friend and my drinking buddy, GI Jane) at The Foxhole who scooped the whole internet by getting a statement from 1SG Hatley in the beginning, but the stories that Beauchamp told were obviously false – completely. So obvious, that even a dumbass like me could see the BS for what it was.

MSG Hatley wasn’t convicted of picking on deformed women, wearing a child’s skull on his head or running over dogs with a Bradley – THAT was what Beauchamps was writing about.

The faux-Conservative Andrew Sullivan also sees this as some sort of vindication for Beauchamp;

One of [Michael Goldfarb’s] key sources, Beauchamp’s own First Sergeant, was critical in rebutting Beauchamp’s charges. Goldfarb’s source for defending the honor of his men and himself was just convicted “of executing four handcuffed, blindfolded Iraqi men by shooting them in the backs of their heads.” Goldfarb’s kinda guy. But who looks more credible now? Goldfarb or Beauchamp?

Um, Beauchamp is an admitted liar – so who looks more credible to you?

Brad Delong says; It Looks Like Scott Beauchamp’s Pieces for the New Republic Were Accurate. Sure, if you look at it through your own jaundiced political biases.

Nearly everyone on the Left begins their posts with something about the “right wing blogs being silent on the Hatley conviction. That’s funny, but I found post on Blackfive and Confederate Yankee on the subject. Even if there weren’t any other posts about the conviction or it’s connection to Beauchamp, so what? What does one have to do with other? Beauchamp admitted he lied – so what does Hatley doing nothing related to the Beauchamp faerie tales negate Beauchamp’s admission that he lied?

So I went over to DU to see what the progressive rocket scientists were saying about this devepoment. I could’ve saved myself a trip, because I knew what I’d find;

But, some were supportive of the Army’s decision, because those danged Marines won’t help Murtha out by convicting a few of them;

These are folks who really support the troops – by using Hatley’s crimes to paint with a broad brush allof the troops and all of the people who join the military;

Yup, let’s pull those troops out of Afghanistan and put them in jail. That way we know where they are when we need meals delivered in Kosovo again.

Category: Politics