Sides with war criminals

[struggle4progress]

11:30 AM ET
Kori Schake

President Donald Trump has exercised his authority to intervene in three cases involving war crimes, on the side of the alleged war criminals. He pardoned one serviceman who was convicted of heinous crimes, and another awaiting trial for heinous crimes. He also reversed the demotion of a Navy SEAL convicted of taking trophy pictures with an enemy corpse. All were brought to justice by their fellow servicemen and women; each prosecution relied on testimony from servicemen in the same units who witnessed the war crimes and reported them to military superiors.

This makes Trump the first commander in chief in memory to pardon American servicemen for violent crimes committed in uniform ...

Being no different from or better than our enemies has not been the aspiration of previous presidents, nor of our military ...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/trump-issues-pardons-war-criminals/602140/

[stopdiggin]

1. this is serious. these are NOT ordinary pardons.

servicemen/women have a natural tendency to push back when civilians start to criticize what happens in the theater (probably with some justification). That's why the following is an important part of this narrative --

each prosecution relied on testimony from servicemen in the same units who witnessed the war crimes and reported them to military superiors.

In each case, the service itself declared the offender at odds with their own code .. and unfit to serve.
This action by a Commander in Chief is a stain on honor of the service(s)

[TomSlick]

2. These pardons create the potential for war crime exposure for Trump.

Countries have an obligation under the laws of war to investigate and punish war crimes. Pardoning war criminals for no reason other than to pander to right-wing pundits violates the obligation of the United States to punish war crimes. Trump is now on record condoning war crimes. As a result, Trump could be found to be personally responsible for war crimes committed by service members emboldened by his condoning war crimes in the past.

If a commander condones war crimes, s/he can have personal criminal exposure for war crimes committed by troops under his/her command under the principle of command responsibility, sometimes called the Yamashita standard. General Yamashita was hanged after conviction for war crimes committed by troops under his command during the Japanese defense of the Philippines.