Quote Originally Posted by Shek View Post
In this case, Dexter Filkins, the author of "The Fall of the Warrior King" from NYT Magazine back in 2005, is a well respected journalist. At least, LTC Sassaman said in his memoirs that he was happy to have participated in the interviews for the article and was pleased because it was a fair article. I think that that serves as an endorsement to use that particular article to pass judgement.
Actually, I would agree that it is a good article. Moreover, I would not equivocate at all that Jack's conduct and judgement was poor, and probably criminal. Insofar as he did go to jail I would have to say that is a big checkmark for the criminal. Additionally, concealing information and hindering an investigation, I am sure is criminal. I am not defending any of that.

All of that notwithstanding, the article is limited in scope, where as the nature of a man, or a woman, is not. The moments in the article are just slices of time out of a mans career, and life. A few bad, and even criminal decisions, do not automatically turn someone into Satan incarnate. I find it amazing that people will advocate "seeing things from the terrorists perspective" but will forget to look through our own soldiers eyes. That is a real shame.

It seems that in an effort to justify ourselves, and our actions, and defend the just war, we are willing to abandon anyone who makes mistakes. I would not try to justify Nate in his decisions, and I was not trying to, but he is not some irredeemable goblin, nor an embarassment to the officer corps. He is just human, like all of us. He made many, many decisions in Iraq, and some people want to condemn him for his bad ones, while forgetting his good ones. You can condemn the decisions without condemning the man. More importantly, I believe we should be willing to forgive mistakes, for someone who did so much good, at least in the long run. I am saying that I believe even with the Samarra incident Nate Sassaman's time in Iraq was a net positive for the Iraqis.

However, I suppose this is a good personal lesson, and one that I have taken to heart. Don't stick a finger in old wounds for no good reason. I highly doubt that we would be here talking about this if Nate hadn't written a book, which I do concur adds nothing to the debate. In the long run, I doubt that this will even rate as a footnote to the history of the Iraq conflict.