Our view: Navy SEALs wrestle with a crisis of character
The Navy SEAL commando force is the stuff of legend, lionized for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, rescuing an American sea captain from Somali pirates and fighting to the death in the mountains of Afghanistan in the “Lone Survivor” story.
This summer, however, the commander of this vaunted band of war fighters warned about an ethical and professional crisis in the ranks. “We have a problem,” Rear Adm. Collin Green wrote in a letter to the troops. “Some of our subordinate formations have failed to maintain good order and discipline and as a result and for good reason, our (Naval Special Warfare) culture is being questioned.”
There was cocaine abuse in a SEAL team based in Virginia. Two SEALs were accused of killing a U.S. soldier in a hazing in North Africa. Another SEAL allegedly raped an American female service member during a drunken party in Iraq.
And then there was the case of Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher.
A combat veteran with the nickname Blade — who said he craved combat and the chance to “kill as many people as possible,” according to The New York Times — Gallagher was accused by members of his platoon of battlefield atrocities in Iraq while fighting the Islamic State terrorist group in 2017.
The allegations included shooting Iraqi civilians from a sniper’s nest, firing indiscriminately into neighborhoods with a heavy machine gun, and using a custom-made knife to stab a teenage captive to death before posing with the corpse for a photograph.
The Navy was slow to investigate, and the prosecution’s case began falling apart even before trial amid concerns about witness intimidation. And Gallagher, who had become the darling of right-wing commentators, was acquitted in July on all charges except the one that involved posing with a dead body.
According to The Times report last week, after Green began worrying about an anti-authority “Gallagher effect” infecting his elite force, an Instagram account belonging to Gallagher and his wife offered T-shirts with the phrase “Gallagher effect” and decried Green and another top leader as “a bunch of morons.”
Plans were drawn up to force Gallagher out of the SEALs based on new evidence of misconduct after unauthorized weapons, stolen equipment and illegal drugs were found in Gallagher’s home and a work locker.
Then President Donald Trump entered the picture.
The commander in chief, who has advocated torture and taken a keen interest in pardoning troops convicted of war crimes, complained in a tweet this month that “we train our boys to be killing machines, then prosecute them when they kill!”
He followed Gallagher’s case, even discussing it with senior Navy officials. The Navy was faced with a dilemma: It could kick Gallagher out of the SEALs to help restore good order and discipline, but risk a reversal by Trump that would effectively emasculate SEAL leadership.
So no action has been taken. And what Navy leaders most feared has likely come to pass: They’ve been shown powerless as the Gallagher effect undermines the unit’s ethical code that “uncompromising integrity is my standard. My character and honor are steadfast. My word is my bond.”
Last week, former Navy SEAL and retired Adm. William McRaven — the highly respected architect of the bin Laden raid — reflected in a column about America’s military ethos.
“The Greatest Generation went to war because it believed that we were the good guys,” he wrote. “We are the most powerful nation ... because we try to be the good guys.”
But with Gallaghers in the ranks and a president in their corner, is the United States still the good guys?