I’m not going to defend Beauchamp’s smears against other soldiers; they’re despicable and he’s a louse for doing it.
But do we really need to go digging up jilted fiancees to discredit someone who seems more than capable of doing the job himself?
We don’t really know why Beauchamp joined the Army. If it was, as claimed, to get material, then the fact that he has to make stuff like this up is a good indicator of just how pedestrian most of Army life is; even in Iraq. But, you know what, I don’t care why he joined (though I care a great deal about his false claims once he did).
If you’ve ever read Herman Wouk’s ‘The Caine Mutiny’ you’ll almost certainly remember Greenwald’s drunken tirade and odd, oblique defense of Captain Queeg at the dinner after the trial. The bottom line, he asserts, is that regardless of Queeg’s motivations for being in the Navy, he was protecting the country when everyone else in the room was enjoying civilian life.
I don’t care if Scott Beauchamp joined the Army to gather material. So what?! The fact is he did. People have joined for better – and worse – reasons than him and I’m not sure they’re especially relevant.
We can prove Beauchamp’s calumnies and TNR’s agenda without stepping down into the gutter.
