Sep 22 2009
To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, John W. Nicholson, Jr.
Army Brig. Gen. John W. Nicholson, Jr. has been silent for some time. We find this curious.
Nicholson burst on scene amid the controversy of the Marine Special Operations company’s disgraced exit from Afghanistan, It was then-Col. Nicholson, commander of Task Force Spartan, who called for their ouster and made solatia payments to the families, stating:
So I stand before you today, deeply, deeply ashamed and terribly sorry that Americans have killed and wounded innocent Afghan people. We are filled with grief and sadness at the death of any Afghan, but the death and wounding of innocent Afghans at the hand of Americans is a stain on our honor and on the memory of the many Americans who have died defending Afghanistan and the Afghan people. This was a terrible, terrible mistake, and my nation grieves with you for your loss and suffering. We humbly and respectfully ask for your forgiveness.
The Army promoted this man, and later sent him back to Afghanistan as deputy commander – Stability, Regional Command South, International Security Assistance Force. (The Corps’ alleged crimes took place in regional Command East.)
But the baby brigadier (West Point ’82), a media darling since his return to Afghanistan, has been pulled back to Washington several months short of his one-year anniversary. In June it was announced he would return to Pentagon’s Joint Staff as director, Pakistan/Afghanistan coordination cell.
Could he be fast-tracking? He has the knowledge and experience for the gig. But, ya know, the move seems timed with recent questions about his role in the banishment of the Marine company.
According to testimony during the Marine Corps court of inquiry looking into the matter and the conduct of the special operations Marines involved, it was revealed the Marines had asked permission to run the operations for which they were tossed. (It was believed they were cowboyin’ it at the time.) It seems the request had been staffed properly and approved by Nicholson’s people. It appears Nicholson may have missed that bit of (crucial!) information when he called for the company’s reassignment outside Afghanistan.
Who cares? Maybe no one. Is this revelation enough to call him back from Afghanistan? Probably not. Our guess is the lives of the Marines will remain tainted and Nicholson’s alleged involvement will lead to greater rewards.
My husband dealt with (then) COL Nicholson during his ‘05-’06 deployment to Afghanistan. I can honestly say BG Nicolson has no problem with tainting someone else’s career to protect and advance his own.
Whats with the degrading of a Military Officer? (The Baby Brigadier) I find this distasteful on a web site run by Military Officer Association of America.
Monday Quarterbacking is always used to attempt to change history, the General called it and no one at the time disagreed with his accusations and findings.
The real question should be why does the Marine Corps need a Special Operation Team to begin with?? Was it that they felt left out and yearned to share the glory/ spotlight or did they have a extra half a billion dollars to spend to pay and equip these teams?
Scary indeed Too bad good men have to suffer.
His “shoot first; get the facts straight later” is curious. Generally, our system of military justice gives more authority commensurate with rank, which should parallel experience and wisdom. It would appear that, as a gentleman (regardless of rank), he should apologize to the Marines and their commanders. It is long overdue–but not too late to set the record straight.
I was a little confused by the titled Wong Foo reference to a relatively obscure 1995 movie. I take it that it was not meant in a complimentary fashion?
Ms. Dixon,
Thank you. Thank you so, so much.
Gina
Mr. Wagner, like former Colonel Nichoson, should get his facts straight. The Marine Corps fought for years against committing troops to Special Ops for at least three reasons: (1) Some senior Marine officers insisted that all Marines are elite, and no particular group should be considered more elite than any other; (2) The Marines could not spare the assets because they needed them for their own special operations; and (3) Placing Marines into a joint special ops framework would require a realignment of the career cycle that could affect their training as Marines and their promotions.
Finally, the Marines were essentially ordered to contribute to special ops, so they did what Marines always do. They said, “Aye, Aye, sir,” and did it to the best of their ability. The Marine special ops commander is, naturally, top notch.
I salute the Military Officers Association of America for throwing a spotlight on this formerly unheard of relief of an entire American unit in combat.
Mr. Moore,
I wrote the title, and there is no link. I usually keep titles closer to the topic, but sometimes I try something different. Sorry for any confusion.
Mr. Wagner,
Though I rarely single out individuals like thus, I have written about Brig. Gen. Nicholson (and Lt. Gen. Kearney) for some time regarding their role with the Marine Special Ops incident and the Marine court of inquiry.
Now, BABY Brigadier simply means a junior brigadier general, (which at this point Nicholson really no longer is.) BUT he remains a junior and a baby brigadier relative to his father. I covered the family connections in an earlier post.
Questions recently again have been raised about Nicholson’s actions (inaction) following the incident that may have needlessly ruined the lives of a group of Marines. Yes, these things happen, but this one seems a bit more vexing.
The question of Marine Corps Special Operations (which has long existed in practice) is a valid one. But this is a Me Too! environment and your observations about the Marines translate to capabilities other services may oddly possess.
The opinions of “Inside the Headquarters” are not necessarily those of MOAA.
I appreciate your comments and they assist with future topics.
Gina
The whole reason war is so tragic and abhorrent is that innocent civilians die. Less tragic is that some less-than-innocent civilians die. And even less is that uniformed or ununiformed soldiers–overwhelmingly in the prime of their lives–also die, even if they “volunteered to die on short notice” as a student of mine once said.
That all notwithstanding, sometimes war is necessary to confront and defeat evil and oppression, and the needless loss of all lives should be avoided. But sometimes, it can’t be; humanity isn’t perfect and precautions to prevent unintended casulties can’t be perfect. Our judgement must be reserved to whether or not our fighting force acted ethically in minimizing casualties while accomplishing the necessary task, so as to lessen the evil and oppression present.
I daresay that innocents have died in every conflict in human history, and to presume that we can preclude innocent deaths, or that we should gushingly apologize when they do happen, is willful disregard of reality–and again I daresay, not ethical in itself.
gina,
was that you at the counterinsurgency leadership conference yesterday? so, you’re a coinista now? there was a lot of intellectual testosterone floating around the room. what a true gentleman bgen draude is in representing the marine corps university foundation so well.
mr wagner,
gina’s response as regards the baby brigadier is spot on. there was no dis-respect intended. she can be a bit tongue in cheek.
this issue is NOT about marsoc and their role in the specops world. the issue is one of honor amongst officers. the marine corps court of inquiry regarding this affair is shrouded in unwarranted secrecy which has nothing to do with protecting the national interests. the marines were rightly held to account for their mistakes. bg nicholson (and other senior officers) has not been held accountable for his mistakes. bg nicholson knows what his mistakes, and the attendant results, were. he is a west pointer who is not living up to the code. gina is not re-writing history. her facts are just that. the answers rest in the marine corps court of inquiry. moaa should be doing a foia inquiry to marcent about this.
mr diehl is absolutely correct in his assessment that bg nicholson needs to come forward with an apology. what gina has only marginally indicated in her previous posts is that bg nicholson is also a member of a prominent and powerful american catholic family. his actions throughout this whole affair are not the sort of behaviour we expect of firm catholics and west point alumni. he is a disappointment.
good job gina! stick with this nicholson story!
kh
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Semper Fi! Do or Die! Unbelievable!!
All Marines are elite therefore how could one marine be more elite than the other?
That is excellent logic and reason enough to relieve the Corps of any further Special Operations requirements and leave that to the other Services.
I believe we would risk national security if we detracted from the Marines’ core task of beach assaults. As I recall their last beach assault in Somalia 93 was met by CNN cameras which is where the marines perform best, in front of the camera, and, oh, they have great commercials too. Go get ‘em cowboys.