On March 3, 2002, a small SEAL Team 6 reconnaissance team led by Slabinski landed atop Takur Ghar, a 10,000-foot peak above the Shah-i-Kot valley in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border. All these authorities have refused to conduct any meaningful or robust oversight of a group of elite commandos who have committed war crimes abroad and gone to great lengths to cover them up. More significantly, the decision to award a Medal of Honor to Slabinski represents the enduring failure of the SEALs, the Pentagon, Congress, and the White House to reckon with the dark history of SEAL Team 6 in the post-9/11 wars. The awards have exposed a rift in the special operations community, a long-running argument pitting the Air Force against the Navy SEALs. But the announcement of the award for Britt Slabinski - and the concurrent decision to give the same award to John Chapman, a deceased Air Force combat controller - came after a yearslong campaign to recognize disputed events 16 years ago on a remote mountain in Afghanistan. Normally, the presentation of the Medal of Honor is a solemn and meaningful recognition of bravery and heroism.
The chief petty officer was arrested in 2018, more than a year after returning from his eighth overseas deployment in Mosul, in northern Iraq.On May 7, the White House announced that President Donald Trump would award a retired SEAL Team 6 sniper the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest decoration for battlefield valor. Gallagher, who did not testify in his own defense, insisted his accusers were disgruntled subordinates with no prior battlefield experience and had fabricated allegations against him over grievances with his leadership style and tactics. On Tuesday, the jury heard from two doctors who said Gallagher suffered repeated concussions during his combat career, putting him at high risk of brain degeneration and visual impairments that will require ongoing medical attention. military personnel accused of war crimes, and Gallagher’s case was widely believed to be one of those under review.Īsked about the possibility of pardon now that the court-martial was over, Marc Mukasey, another member of Gallagher’s defense team who is also one of Trump’s personal lawyers, said, “We have not had contact with the White House since the trial began.” Trump said in May he was considering pardons for a number of U.S.
0 kommentar(er)
