Messaging Behind Pardoning War Criminals on Memorial Day?

[Milchshake]

Does a rational state actor pardon War Criminals for their Memorial or V Day? It feels more like pandering to the identity politics of authoritarian fascists.

A rational state actor has little to gain. This kind of pardon with this timing:

• It signals to adversaries and allies contempt for international agreements. Like the norms that the Geneva Convention and our own UCMJ.
• It signals contempt to your own veterans. By tarnishing their day of remembrance with the bad acts of some outliers who committed crimes.

Pardons for Servicemen Accused of War Crimes
President Trump has indicated that he is considering pardons for several American military members accused or convicted of war crimes, including high-profile cases of murder, attempted murder and desecration of a corpse, according to two United States officials.

The officials said that the Trump administration had made expedited requests this week for paperwork needed to pardon the troops on or around Memorial Day.

One request is for Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher of the Navy SEALs, who is scheduled to stand trial in the coming weeks on charges of shooting unarmed civilians and killing an enemy captive with a knife while deployed in Iraq.

The others are believed to include the case of a former Blackwater security contractor recently found guilty in the deadly 2007 shooting of dozens of unarmed Iraqis; the case of Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, the Army Green Beret accused of killing an unarmed Afghan in 2010; and the case of a group of Marine Corps snipers charged with urinating on the corpses of dead Taliban fighters.

This incentivizes the commission of war crimes by our opponents and allies, and in doing so puts US servicemembers at greater risk.

[Templar 331]

There are people in our country that will gladly see it burn or cut off from the rest of the world just to spite others. These people tend to also hero worship veterans so they are likely to completely ignore what these people have been found guilty of.

There's a word that Hillary used to describe them....I just can't remember what it was.....

[Captain N]

The messaging behind pardoning war crimes should be pretty easy to figure out considering all the other support for criminal behavior this Administration has shown.

[Milchshake]

There are people in our country that will gladly see it burn or cut off from the rest of the world just to spite others. These people tend to also hero worship veterans so they are likely to completely ignore what these people have been found guilty of.

There's a word that Hillary used to describe them....I just can't remember what it was.....

There's the deplorables. Then there's useful idiots like Greenwald, Assange, TYT, Jacobin etc. Who swore that Trumps anti-interventionism would reset the world order or something.

It was karmic to see Putin and Trump throw Assange to the wolves after they had no more use for him. Assange and these weird nihilists probably see themselves as indispensable heros. To be richly rewarded in their new world order.


They were to privileged to account for all the intentional cruelty that would come with tearing down the old order of things.

[PosPosPos]

These people tend to also hero worship veterans so they are likely to completely ignore what these people have been found guilty of.

This is not exactly accurate. They worship veterans...until it's time to pay for their salary or compensation for injuries/disabilities in service. They also seem to enjoy disrespecting dead veterans.

[Wyrt]

This is not exactly accurate. They worship veterans...until it's time to pay for their salary or compensation for injuries/disabilities in service. They also seem to enjoy disrespecting dead veterans.

They like veterans the same way they like children: as a tool to bash their opponents with. Then when it's time to actually care for them they're discarded like trash.

[PosPosPos]

They like veterans the same way they like children: as a tool to bash their opponents with. Then when it's time to actually care for them they're discarded like trash.

Yeah, with children they are sacrosanct before birth, and trash after.

[Kellhound]

Pardoning anyone convicted of violating the UCMJ is reprehensible.

[zorkuus]

The message is perfectly clear: we're (they're) evil.

[Felya]

This is not exactly accurate. They worship veterans...until it's time to pay for their salary or compensation for injuries/disabilities in service. They also seem to enjoy disrespecting dead veterans.

That’s a good point. Even if he pardons them, they are stuck using the VA. It’s not punishment enough, but it’s a little bit of punishment.