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.