Only in a very few countries does the military punish its own troops for crimes against civilians or opposing forces. I only know of two, although there may be more. Israel in the past has punished its soldiers for causing civilian deaths. The U.S. is the other.
War or armed conflict does not mean the absence of rules. After the My Lai massacre, the U.S. army emphasized just what constituted an illegal order or an illegal action. In the heat of battle, the rules may be bent or broken, but if you are a member of the U.S. armed forces and you are given an illegal order, you are supposed to disobey it on the spot.
American armed forces do not kill unarmed civilians.
Trump has now pardoned three members of the armed services who have been convicted or accused of war crimes. One was serving a 19-year sentence for murdering two civilians. One killed an unarmed Afghan because he said he believed the man was making bombs. One was a Navy SEAL who was acquitted of a murder charge but convicted of a lesser offense.
I know what some readers will say. But Christman, you were never in the army. You don’t know what it is like. I have two answers for this. First, neither was President Trump. Second, the juries that convicted those men were in the military and did know what it was like.
Defense Department officials argued that the pardons would undermine the military code of justice. Do you think our President cares?
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