MICHAEL YON ON Beauchamp and the rules of second chances.

Plus, further thoughts on Beauchamp and Foer from Bruce Rolston: “As for Beauchamp, it’s really hard to destroy two careers at one stroke, but he seems to have done it. More shame on TNR, which was the only agency that could have prevented the young man’s self-immolation here. One last thing: anyone who thinks Beauchamp has been intimidated by the army really should read the transcript, which shows pretty graphically that Foer wasn’t above doing a fair bit of intimidating himself.”

Also this: “What was really striking to me about the transcript was the complete self-interest Foer and Scoblic show in talking with a Private in an austere combat zone. Can he fax his signature to his lawyer right away? Can he call his U.S. based lawyer within the hour? Look, I have trouble doing those sorts of things on demand from my office HERE IN TORONTO. To blithely assume that a private at a combat outpost in a warzone can easily do those things for them (instead of, you know, his job with the fighting and the shooting and the glavin) and that the infrastructure that would be needed to support that, assuming it exists, exists purely for their benefit, just typifies the whole TNR mindset during this whole episode to me.”

MORE: Major John Tammes emails: “It does appear that some good may come of this whole mess, at least for PVT Beauchamp and his squadmates. PVT Beauchamp’s command has been quite forgiving (a ‘local’ reprimand letter in file is quite merciful). However, I would hope that this second chance would include some sort of public clearing of his buddies’ names. While continuing to serve out his assignment is to Beauchamp’s credit, to leave the matter hanging (as it stands back in the US media) seems to make this an incomplete attempt to regain his comrades’ trust. I would advise PVT Beauchamp to publicly clear the men he served, and continues to serve, alongside.”