Support Lt Cmdr Charles Swift
I sent the following letter to my representative asking him to look into the Charles Swift situation. Swift, a military lawyer, mounted a serious defense of an accused prisoner and may have been the target of retribution for having done so.
Dear Representative Radanovich,
I recently read an article in the New York Times entitled “The Cost of Doing Your Duty.” The article details how
“Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift was assigned to represent Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni citizen accused of being a high-ranking member of Al Qaeda — for the sole purpose of getting him to plead guilty before one of the military commissions that President Bush created for Guantánamo Bay. Instead of carrying out this morally repugnant task, Commander Swift concluded that the commissions were unconstitutional. He did his duty and defended his client.”
Lt. Cmdr. Swift has been denied promotion which means that in the Navy’s “up or out” system, he will be forced to retire (according to the article anyway). As established since the Nuremberg trials, the first duty of all soldiers is to obey the constitution, law and their moral conscience rather than blindly doing their duty when asked to do something that is wrong and unconstitutional.
Based on the information I have, Swift is a true American hero, a soldier who took the hard road of doing the right thing in the service of his country and, like the New York Times, I wonder whether he is being punished for doing something that was right, but unpopular.
I would hope that someone in your office could investigate Lt. Cmdr. Swift’s situation and verify that he was fairly treated and that he was not denied promotion as a means of retribution.
Sincerely,
Thomas A. Lambert.
Write to your representative at Congress.org
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October 12th, 2007 at 7:40 am
are you now or have you ever been a member of the communist party?or are you a democrat which is the same as the comunist party.
October 15th, 2007 at 11:44 am
That’s absurd. Democrats dress better than communists.
Of course, it’s also absurd because it’s like asking whether or not you are or ever have been a member of the Nazi Party. Or are you a Republican, which is the same thing as being a Nazi and a Fascist? As disgusted as I am with the Republican party, and especially the current junta in power, I think it is important to actually understand that there are distinctions between Republicans and Nazis, and it bothers me when people on the left call Bush a Nazi. Despicable, yes, but not a Nazi any more than Obama is a Maoist. Throwing labels like that around is just ridiculous. The ravings of a weak mind.
To answer your first question, though, I’ve never officially been a member of the Communist party. I have at times reluctantly registered as a Democrat, but I think of myself as a democrat, not a Democrat, so the only soft spot I have for the Democratic party is that they, unlike the Republicans, are sort of kind of, with their feet dragging, speaking out to protect my civil liberties and some basic freedoms. They’re doing a piss poor job, but the Republicans are definitely worse. The Republicans should be ashamed, because if ever there were an issue where conservatives should win, it is on strict constitutional protections and avoiding foreign entanglements. Once upon a time, those were actually strengths of the Republican party. Of course, Joe McCarthy was a Republican and that’s pretty much set the tone for post-WWII Republicans, so I guess it’s absurd to think they would actually be conservatives with respect to constitutional protections. Oh, except the right to bear arms. They like that one.