World News Korner

Navy Seal caught smuggling 10 kilos of cocaine into the country.

Courtesy of Buzzfeed:

A Navy SEAL who served in the military for 14 years and worked on covert anti-drug operations has admitted to smuggling 10 kilos of cocaine into the United States, according to records from the federal district court in Miami and a source familiar with his service.

The SEAL, Angel Martinez-Ramos, left active duty in 2010 but continued to deploy on missions as a reservist, court papers say. He had drug paraphernalia, including a money-counting machine and drug-testing equipment, at home, the documents say. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import cocaine and is currently in custody in Miami awaiting sentencing.

His case comes in the wake of another embarrassment for the elite SEALs, the commandos famous for killing Osama bin Laden. Earlier this year, two former members of the group died after consuming heroin and alcohol on a commercial ship they had been hired to protect from pirates.

I want to make it clear that this post should in no way be perceived as anti-military in any way.

However I think it is important to remind people that the current deifying of our men and women in the armed services needs to stop.

Many of those in our fighting forces are exemplary and honest human beings, who courageously put their lives on the line to protect American interests overseas. Not our freedom, but our interests.

It must be remembered however that some of these guys are simply average men doing a very challenging job, who may or may not have the highest ethical or moral standards. As we have seen all too often.

Whenever we put any group of people on a pedestal, like the Right Wing so often does with our military, we risk not paying critical enough attention to who they are, and what they do.

Don't forget that these are individuals who travel to a foreign land and kill citizens of that land when ordered to do so, without ever knowing for sure if they are innocent, guilty, or simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sadly we need people like this in the world, but we should always remember that a job like that requires a certain ability to suspend their empathetic natures, a skill that some pick up over time, and which some never had holding them back in the first place.

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