The U.S. Navy SEALs have suspended ties to the National SEALs Museum over a video of a fundraiser that appeared on Twitter. It features dogs attacking a man wearing a Colin Kaepernick jersey.
Navy SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce used “Colin Kaepernick stand-in" for K-9 demonstration at fundraiser last year #BecauseFlorida https://t.co/COHFCeJ3GN pic.twitter.com/EpcELHxrSe
— Billy Corben (@BillyCorben) August 2, 2020
Harmless fun? Tweaking the nose of the left? Not to the SEALs.
“Each and every one of us serves to protect our fellow Americans – ALL Americans. Even the perception that our commitment to serving the men and women of this nation is applied unevenly is destructive,” Rear Adm. Collin Green, who heads the Naval Special Warfare Command, said in an email to his forces on Monday evening.
He added: “We will revisit our relationship with the Museum when I am convinced that they have made the necessary changes to ensure this type of behavior does not happen again.”
In recent years, the SEALs have received more attention than they might have desired. Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher was pardoned by Donald Trump after being accused of war crimes. Another SEAL broke one of the cardinal rules of the ultra-secret outfit and quit the Navy to write a book about his exploits with SEAL Team Six — including a claim that he fired the fatal shots that killed Osama bin Laden.
The SEALs would much rather have dealt with these people internally. It’s how the Special Warfare Command usually operates. But it wasn’t possible in these cases. In fact, Gallagher’s primary accusers were other SEALs in his outfit.
Adm. Green made it clear that even the hint of impropriety was enough to have the SEALs withdraw their support.
In the letter, Green said, “While the museum is an independent non-profit organization and the participants were contracted employees from outside the DoD, in many ways, these facts are irrelevant. We have been inextricably linked to this organization that represents our history.”
“We may not have contributed to the misperception in this case, but we suffer from it and will not allow it to continue,” he said.
Green concluded his secret letter, which was given to the Associated Press by an anonymous source, with words of honor.
“We own our relationship with the American people and we must honor it,” said Green in his letter on Monday. “We also own our relationship with each other, and our fellow teammates will all receive the dignity and respect they deserve.”
This is a group that lives by a strict code that is alien to most of the rest of us. They aren’t choir boys. They are warriors. That word has a special meaning because they volunteered for a duty that they knew would constantly put them in harm’s way, where most other people shrink. They are proud of being the sharp end of the stick for American policy around the world and proud that nobody except themselves and their command knows what they accomplish.
I doubt whether more than a handful of SEALs agrees with Kaepernick’s protest. But they would fight to the death for his right to make it. And that’s the difference between any Navy SEAL or Special Forces personnel and the woke snowflakes who deride them.
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