With their December 7 initial appearance before a military judge just a weekend away, we cannot help but watch out for any information surrounding the case of assault that has been leveled against three Navy SEALs.

A feature on CNSNews talked about something that we are certainly hoping is not in store for Navy SEALs Matthew McCabe, Jonathan Keefe and Julio Huertas – jail time. We know that we are not in any position to make such pronouncements, but we do not see any harm in hoping. The image of bodies hanging on a bridge makes it difficult for us to be sympathetic in any way to the SEALs’ accuser.

In the (once again, hopefully) unlikely event of a conviction, the three Navy SEALs may reportedly “face up to a year in military confinement, discharge for bad conduct and forfeiture of two-thirds of their pay for a year”. The source of the information was reportedly the defense attorneys for the SEALs.

Even having this as a possibility after being called in to do a task as, and this is just conjecture on our part, a last resort after all else has failed – and undoubtedly putting their lives on the line to successfully complete it – is sheer madness; there is hardly any way to express how we feel about this entire situation.

We get that there is no excuse for maltreating prisoners, but surely this is not the only way to show to the whole world that the United States treats its prisoners well and does not condone prisoner abuse. We have to wonder whether the SEALs are being used as scapegoats for, off the top of our heads, Guantanamo?

Defense attorneys are reportedly “waiting to see the evidence from military prosecutors”. It will certainly be interesting to see what these people have against the SEALs.