I believe he would. It's a great line, something to jump-start the heart of any war movie, but coming from Allen West, whom I have had the honor of knowing since 2007, first as a pen pal, when he was in Afghanistan training Afghan forces, it is also genuine. Little wonder Gen. Raymond Odierno, then commanding general of the 4th Infantry Division, declined to call for a court martial.
West paid a fine and subsequently retired from the Army -- our loss. After resettling his family in Florida where he taught high school for a year, West embarked on that training hitch in Afghanistan mentioned above. He returned to Florida late in 2007 to make his first (competitive but unsuccessful) run for Congress in 2008. This election year, his prospects of unseating incumbent Rep. Ron Klein (Florida Democrat) are excellent, and Florida has the great opportunity of returning to national service a man America can be proud of.
At this point, West is virtually unique among his military peers in his public commitment to seeing justice done -- in this case, clemency -- for the Leavenworth Ten soldiers and their families. When I spoke to him recently, West made that case quite dramatically, comparing the hundreds of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, known killers of American troops among them, on whom America has bestowed both clemency and freedom, with the implacable refusal of the U.S. government to treat the Leavenworth Ten even half as mercifully. Having forgiven our enemies, the United States has no such forgiveness for the men who served to fight them.
"Something is upside-down about this military legal system," says West, who believes this and other systemic military problems, from "the convoluted rules of engagement" to "Ivy League, think-tank" strategies, will be corrected if Americans send more representatives with battlefield experience to Washington.
Of course, West is spending the first day of Labor Day weekend, the kick-off to the traditional sprint to Election Day, in Kansas, far from his southern Florida district, to speak at the Leavenworth rally. Why?
"It's important," he replied. "Going to Congress doesn't mean so much to me as doing something to help these young men."
Fortunately, Allen West can do both.