A Navy court-martial will convene next month to determine whether Petty Officer Matthew McCabe, a Navy SEAL on tour in Iraq, gave terror mastermind Ahmed Hashim Abed a noogie.
Or maybe it was a fat lip.
Joining McCabe in the dock will be fellow SEAL Julio Huertas — accused, essentially, of refusing to rat out a buddy.
And we thought show trials in Iraq went out of fashion when Saddam fell.
McCabe and Huertas were arraigned this week for assault and impeding an investigation, among other charges, after Abed complained about his “mistreatment” in US custody.
Whatever they gave him was better than he deserved: Abed orchestrated the brutal 2004 murder of four US civilian contractors in Fallujah.
His capture in September should have earned the SEALs a medal.
Instead, McCabe, Huertas and Petty Officer Jonathan Keefe (who’s expected to be arraigned soon) were charged.
Much better had Navy brass let the SEALs return to killing terrorists.
Instead, they called the lawyers.
It only stands to reason: When hardened terrorists captured on the battlefield can expect three-ring-circus trials in US courts, hero GIs will be railroaded for the slightest indiscretion.
The courts, of course, can be fully counted on to weigh the evidence against McCabe, Huertas and Keefe.
That’s the problem.
For the one thing the judicial system can’t judge is how much of a waste — in terms of time, money and troop morale — the entire charade is in the first place.
That job falls to Pentagon brass — right up to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
They need to drop the charges.
First, Maj. Hasan and Fort Hood, and now this. How long before America’s front-line troops begin to wonder if the country really has their backs?