Commander Investigated After Killing Tenn Shooter

Commander Investigated After Killing Tenn Shooter

By Michael Reagan

It now appears the United States Navy is so lawyer–bound and politically correct that common sense has been forced to walk the plank.

Fox New reports Navy paper–pushers are considering “punishing a lieutenant commander who used an unauthorized weapon to fire back at the Chattanooga gunman who shot and killed five service members.”

Lt. Cmdr. Timothy White is the officer in question. Thanks to the Clinton administration, members of the armed forces (no pun intended) are not allowed to have weapons inside recruiting or reserve stations. The Pentagon wouldn’t want potential recruits to get the wrong idea about what serving their country might involve.

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The Chattanooga shooter killed a total of five sailors and Marines during his sneak attack, but during the confrontation White and an unnamed Marine engaged him with their personal, and prohibited, handguns.

Contrast that body count of five with the 13 killed during the shooting at Fort Hood. There personnel followed orders and didn’t shoot back.

These anonymous, supercilious Pentagon lawyers justify their witch-hunt by claiming “Even if remote, is there a chance [White] contributed to the chaos and got people killed? Hurt police efforts? We are exploring that.”

Right now we don’t even know whose bullet killed the jihadi. It’s possible that White or the Marine wounded the shooter and helped end the spree prematurely. It’s certain they affected his aim.

I suppose Pentagon lawyers would have preferred that White and the Marine had hunkered down into as small a target as possible rather than acting like members of the military. In their small bureaucratic minds I’m sure ignoring White’s so–called offense would call into question a policy that does not trust men and women sworn to defend the country with the means to start that defense. And calling the policy into question also calls into question the people who administer the policy.

This cover your behind, take no chances, go–along–to–get–along mentality that’s rotting the command structure of the U.S. military is one of the many reasons ISIS, Iran, China, and Russia no longer fear a response from the U.S.

The Pentagon might fire off a legal brief in response to a provocation, but it’s unlikely to ever fire off a shell.

But what do you expect from “leaders” in the Pentagon who advised recruiters to consider armed citizen volunteers who showed up around the country to guard recruiting centers after the Chattanooga shooting a “security threat.”

Michael Reagan is the son of former President Ronald Reagan and chairman of the League of American Voters. His blog appears on reaganreports.com