Letter to Kim Hatley, Wife of MSG John Hatley

I wrote a letter to Kim Hatley, the wife of MSG John E. Hatley. MSG Hatley represents one of the highest profile cases resulting from the Iraq War. John Hatley is by far the most highly decorated combat soldier incarcerated at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He also possesses the longest and most exceptional military service. In this case, the alleged incident was for the better good, which preserved the lives of countless American soldiers during one of the most violent periods of extreme sectarian violence in pre-surge Iraq.

John’s deployment on Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) (2006-08) was his third deployment to Iraq. Having served his country for almost 20 years with an exemplary military record and being highly decorated, John was only six months away from retirement from the U.S. Army. The military judge of the court martial initially sentenced John Hatley to life in prison for the alleged murder of four unidentified insurgents. The court convicted John of allegedly murdering the four insurgents; however, the prosecution did not identify the four insurgents by name nor were their bodies ever found. Additionally, neither ballistics nor forensic evidence were available to support the charge of murder of the insurgents. This verdict represents pure miscarriage (of justice).

The U.S. Army charged John and two other soldiers (SGT Michael Leahy and SFC Joseph Mayo) with murdering the four Iraqi detainees on one of their missions towards the end of March 2007. The court found SGT Leahy and MSG John Hatley guilty of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit murder, which was contrary to their pleas of Not Guilty to all charges. SFC Mayo pled guilty of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit murder. These men did nothing wrong. Political correctness (PC) causes many of these problems in warfare.

In my letter to Kim Hatley below, I include three hyperlinks to articles I wrote about the following:

• To win wars, we must fight to win
• Why we need a new warfighting strategy for America today
• MG Paul Vallely has it right

If we do not change our approach to fighting wars, we will needlessly continue to sacrifice our warfighters in these meaningless wars. When the real war comes (i.e., World War III), we will lose that war if we continue to tie our warfighters’ hands behind their backs and tell them to go win the war. We will definitely lose.

We need a paradigm shift. We need to fight wars the way Sun Tzu and General George S. Patton, Jr., fought their wars in their day. Today, we must learn how to fight and win asymmetrical wars. We must discard PC and fight wars to win—or we should get out of Afghanistan and Iraq before we lose. Now, withdrawing is, basically, retreating and losing the war. I do not recommend that we lose the war the way we lost in the Vietnam War. I recommend that we fight the wars the way suggested by MG Paul Vallely and myself as delineated in the third article. Now, here is my letter to Kim Hatley as follows:

9/13/10

Dear Kim Hatley,

Re:Your Article on “IEDs/VBIEDs: Who Plants and Detonates them?” stirred my soul (I read it at www.defendjohnhatley.com; more specifically at defendjohnhatley.com/2010/03/15/ieds-vbieds-who-plants-detonates-them/).

I am currently working on a PhD in Business Administration with specialization in Homeland Security. My dissertation research project is on “Exploring Elements Contributing to Improvised Explosive Device (IED) Campaigns in the United States Homeland.” Hence, I am very concerned about and interested in defeating the deadly IEDs. I am also in the process of writing a book titled Those Blasted IEDs! Defeating the Deadly Improvised Explosive Device. That will be my 18th book.

Kim, I think our country is wasting the lives of our military heroes by tying their hands behind their backs (with political correctness) and expecting them to win the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I have written three articles on how we should fight wars to win or not get involved in them at all.  You can see these three articles at the following links:

• beforeitsnews.com/story/160/932/To_Win_Wars,_We_Must_Fight_to_Win.html
• beforeitsnews.com/story/163/707/Why_we_need_a_new_warfighting_strategy_for_America_today.html
• beforeitsnews.com/story/155/897/MG_Paul_E._Vallely_has_It_Right.html

MSG John Hatley is a true military hero. The government should promote, decorate, and honor him instead of placing him in prison for 35 years. That is a travesty!  I admire your dedication to your cause. Do not give up. Something will happen that will set your husband free. Keep the faith.

Respectfully,

Bob Uda

USAF Veteran