Is President Trump ending civilization? The United States withdrew from an international court on war crimes so Americans could not be charged for war crimes, e.g., bombing civilian populations like we did in Iraq.
AT A MINIMUM TRUMP'S PARDONS AND PLANNED PARDONS OF WAR CRIMINALS IS PROOF OF HIS LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OF WARFARE.
PROMOTES HATE AND VIOLENCE, TRUMP PROVES HE HAS NO SOUL.
"Can a Pardon Be a War Crime?: When Pardons Themselves Violate the Laws of War"
by Gabor Rona May 25, 2019
https://www.justsecurity.org/64288/can-a-pardon-be-a-war-crime-when-pardons-themselves-violate-the-laws-of-war/
"President Donald Trump’s inclination to grant pardons to several military and contractor personnel accused or convicted of war crimes may itself be a violation of the laws of war, if not a war crime. In an extraordinary public statement issued Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) – an international organization that usually acts through confidential communications with parties to armed conflict – explains the distinction between pardons and amnesties. The ICRC does not comment on specific cases, and in this statement, does not opine on the legality, let alone the possible criminality, of any particular grant of pardon/amnesty. But the fact that the organization chose to weigh in on such a hot button issue suggests how serious a threat such action by President Trump would be to the system of international law.
Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher of the Navy SEALs is scheduled to stand trial in the coming weeks on charges that while deployed in Iraq, he shot several unarmed civilians and stabbed a prisoner to death. Nicholas A. Slatten, a former Blackwater security contractor, was recently convicted of first-degree murder for the 2007 shooting of dozens of unarmed Iraqis. Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn is an Army Green Beret accused of killing an unarmed Afghan in 2010. A group of Marine snipers have been charged with urinating on the corpses of dead Taliban fighters. These are all war crimes that violate the most fundamental principle of the laws of war, the principle of distinction: combatants may target enemy combatants, but civilians and even combatants no longer participating in hostilities, such as PoWs, not to mention the deceased, must be protected."
Accepting war criminals into our society is equivalent to allowing murders to walk the streets.
"Pardoning these men, especially the ones who have not yet been tried (amnesties), is an insult to the legal and moral standards the U.S. military is bound to uphold. It undermines the ability of the military to enforce discipline among its ranks and after the torture scandals of post-9/11, further damages the reputation of the United States for adherence to its international human rights obligations and the laws of war. This much has been broadly recognized by legal and military experts, including here and here on these pages. In the first of these essays, a group of retired military leaders go so far as to note that as Commander in Chief of the armed forces, the President, acting in compliance with the U.S. Law of War Manual, “should not interfere with his commanders’ fulfillment of their legal duties when they face strong evidence that their subordinates have breached [the] law.”"
The Commander in Chief sets the rules of war. We shall reap what we sew, and our people can expect equal treatment when captured, and total disrespect from the international world.
What is it Mr. H. thinks is forgivable, and by whom? Murder is not forgivable and it was his peers have rejected the war criminal.
"Gallagher and Golsteyn are also both accused of murder. As the New York Times detailed last month, Gallagher’s fellow Navy SEALs alerted higher-ups about his conduct in Iraq — conduct that ultimately resulted in him being charged in September with premeditated murder, attempted murder, and other crimes that could land him in prison for the rest of his life:
- Stabbing a defenseless teenage captive to death. Picking off a school-age girl and an old man from a sniper’s roost. Indiscriminately spraying neighborhoods with rockets and machine-gun fire.
- Navy SEAL commandos from Team 7’s Alpha Platoon said they had seen their highly decorated platoon chief commit shocking acts in Iraq. And they had spoken up, repeatedly. But their frustration grew as months passed and they saw no sign of official action.
- Tired of being brushed off, seven members of the platoon called a private meeting with their troop commander in March 2018 at Naval Base Coronado near San Diego. According to a confidential Navy criminal investigation report obtained by The New York Times, they gave him the bloody details and asked for a formal investigation."
War criminals are some of the worst kind of humans and MUST be punished or we all lose our souls.
"Trump is responding to Fox News
Fox News has encouraged pardons for service members accused of crimes, and Trump seems to be listening.
On March 30, a day after South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman appeared on Fox & Friends and raised concerns about the conditions of Gallagher’s pretrial detention, Trump tweeted that “[i]n honor of his past service to our Country,” Gallagher “will soon be moved to less restrictive confinement while he awaits his day in court.” He tagged Fox & Friends’ Twitter account in the tweet."
Ugly!
"But issuing pardons before people accused of murder have their day in military court would take Trump’s rejection of law and order to a new level.
During Fox News segments Trump is likely watching, Hegseth has made a case that Gallagher and Golsteyn were fighting for the country and just doing what’s necessary in a combat zone. But Bensahel, the defense policy experts from Johns Hopkins, said she doesn’t think that argument holds up.
“Saying that people should be pardoned just because they served in difficult situations undermines the entire military law system, it undermines views of the US as a moral nation, and undermines how the US is seen as applying its own rule of law,” she said.
Ultimately, she argued, the US should be a nation of laws — both at home and in combat zones. “If people don’t think they are going to be held to any sort of standard for their behavior and laws are optional, that undermines the effectiveness of how US forces operate. In addition to the broader political implications, there’s a real danger here for how military units operate if these pardons happen, especially before the system has had a chance to proceed. It’s a grave risk to order and discipline in units.”"
Are we headed toward the day of legal killing we see in the movies?
"Trump Is Using His Pardon Power to Reward Violence and Cruelty"
His vision of how to act “tough” extends from war crimes to police brutality and doesn’t stop there.
By Jamelle Bouie Opinion Columnist May 23, 2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/opinion/trump-pardons-war-crimes.html
"
Last year, a federal jury in Washington convicted Nicholas Slatten, a former security contractor, of first-degree murder for his role in killing one of 14 Iraqi civilians who died in 2007 in a shooting that also injured more than a dozen others. Matthew Golsteyn, an Army Green Beret, was charged late last year with the murder of an unarmed Afghan man during a 2010 deployment. Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who served in Iraq, was reported to authorities by his own men, who witnessed him “stabbing a defenseless teenage captive to death,” “picking off a school-age girl and an old man from a sniper’s roost” and “indiscriminately spraying neighborhoods with rockets and machine-gun fire.”
There are others — all accused of war crimes while fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Trump apparently wants to give them a presidential pardon, timed for Memorial Day."
Trump also chuckled when a rally nut-case shouted lets shoot immigrants at the border. Really! He did! Trump also said a rock thrown by an illegal immigrant can be reason to shoot them.
Trump is a cowardly man who ran away from military service, and now he wants to look "strong" and "tough" by hurting the weak.
Perhaps people forget Trump suggested killing ISIS families?
"For Trump, this toughness — this willingness to act cruelly and brutally — is a virtue. That’s especially true when the targets are racial others.
We saw this 30 years ago when he called for the return of the death penalty in the wake of accusations against the Central Park Five. We saw it during his presidential campaign, when he called for American soldiers to commit war crimes in the fight against the Islamic State. “The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families,”"
How about protecting families?
"Hegseth hasn’t just lobbied Trump in private; he’s also repeatedly made a case for Trump to pardon the accused war criminals on Fox & Friends, a show the president frequently live-tweets.
“These are men who went into the most dangerous places on earth with a job to defend us and made tough calls in a moment’s notice,” Hegseth said last Sunday. “They’re not war criminals — they’re warriors. ... This should be a uniting issue, but the left is going to attack him for this, saying, ‘He’s releasing war criminals, he’s loosening the rules of engagement, our men and women are willy-nilly killing civilians’ — it’s all garbage, but they’ll attack him no matter what.”
“These are the good guys. These are the war fighters,” Hegseth added.
But it is not “the left” that has accused the troops in question of war crimes — it is the military justice system. While Trump seems to view the pardons as a gift to the military, it’s actually the military that has decided to prosecute Gallagher and Golsteyn. Pardons, in short, would interfere in prosecution instigated by the military, which is an extremely unusual thing for the president to do."
Mr. H. has a mindless approach, and I suspect is slightly insane, when touting the rapists renegades as "warriors." These men lost their honor when they committed their war crimes.
America must reject dishonorable behavior, as has the true warriors in the military. It's not the liberals, Mr. H., it is the military who rejects these crimes.
