Over at Blackfive, Uncle Jimbo writes on Beauchamp’s decision to step forward now:
As far as writing under your own name, as I noted above JD Johannes had already identified you down to Company (100+ troops) level and you used your first and middle names as your pseudonym you freakin’ pinhead. You were already fronted out and I would assume it was some members of your unit that “politely” invited you to name yourself.
From Bryan at Hot Air:
In hindsight, that he’d call his critics chickenhawks was as easy to predict as the way the left will spin this story now that he’s come forward. I’ll be interested to see what Yon, Greyhawk, Blackfive, their military readers and the vast majority of Beauchamp’s other challengers have to say about their alleged inexperience in Iraq given that their main knock on him all along has been “I’ve been there and it wouldn’t have happened that way” The definition of “chickenhawk” is a wondrous protean creature, able to evolve at any moment to suit the left’s tastes, so who knows? Maybe Greyhawk’s a chickenhawk now too.
Over at the Corner, Mark Steyn hits Beauchamp for complaining that his “character” has “been called into question.
In English libel law, Private Beauchamp would be regarded as a man with no reputation to defame.
From Powerline‘s Scott Johnson:
Now that Beauchamp has stepped forward, the issues regarding the veracity of “Shock troops” should be resolved in short order. It is striking that Beauchamp’s statement does not add any facts to support the veracity of “Shock troops,” although his identity is certainly a start…. In their preface to Beauchamp’s statement, “the editors” state that they have thus far found nothing to disprove Beauchamp’s article. They do not add, as they did earlier, that they have communicated with soldiers who have done much to corroborate the events recounted by Beauchamp. Indeed, neither Beauchamp nor “the editors” have disclosed a single fact to corroborate the article, although the disclosure of Beauchamp’s identity counts for something. I trust that all will become clear in the fullness of time.
From Op-For:
So we know he’s a soldier. I never doubted that in the first place, he spoke the lingo well enough. But, as Greyhawk noted, the inquiry has really just begun. Now we have to go about fact-checking his stories, which I suspect will turn out to have been grandly embellished. So no doubt wheels are turning over in the 1/18’s command staff right now. Wouldn’t be surprised if Private Beauchamp was standing tall in front of the man at this very moment, under the scruntity of an aggressively curious CO who is demanding details down to the letter about each of his diary entries. Expect a press release soon. The Army is going to move quick on this, now that they have a face to the name. Either way, today is going to be a very bad day for Private Scott Thomas Beauchamp.
More frrom: The Danger Room FP Passport Riehl World View Mudville Gazette Jeff Emanuel Andrew Sullivan Badgers Forward And finally, Beauchamp has yet to address this at his own blog, The Sir Real Scott Thomas, but Michelle Malkin is pulling the most ‘surreal’ bits out for readers.
