He's Our Soldier

The Taliban are holding an American soldier prisoner.

The circumstances are unclear, but initial reports indicate he walked away from his unit. Possibly after drinking with Afghan soldiers. He may have ultimately been sold to the Taliban by whoever initially grabbed him.

He may have a had a very serious bout of stupid. And now he's paying the price.

The video of the soldier isn't his finest hour. He could arguably be punished for what he said if it is determined that it provided aid and comfort to the enemy. I certainly won't judge that from where I sit right now.

But on Sunday night, Ralph Peters, a writer I respect, said words to the effect that the Taliban should hang on to him and save us the trouble of having to punish him. Peters is wrong.

Look, we could all hope that his captivity would consist of him manfully refusing to cooperate and proclaiming his loyalty to God, country, and the Army. If this was a movie, we could hope he'd engage in a debate over the war and earn a grudging respect from his captors, perhaps even releasing him. Some might even question their own motives for waging jihad.

But this isn't a movie. Our soldier is held by murderers who would consider themselves blessed by Allah to have the opportunity to slaughter an American soldier.

Be clear, I am not condoning our excusing his words on camera. He should not have said those things. I have no idea if I ever would have done better, but I still know what is right regardless of whether I could live up to those standards.

But he is an American soldier--good or bad. And if he violated his oath and violated the UCMJ, he should be judged and punished by his peers in the Army. We need to get him back.

Those were ill considered words by Peters and quite wrong to say. We do not subcontract the Uniform Code of Military Justice to a bunch of scimitar-wielding nut cases.