War Crime Pardons

TLK Valentine

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It does not undermine the UCMJ. As the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, the President of the United States has the authority under both the Constitution and the UCMJ to issue pardons.

He also has the authority to replace "Hail to the Chief" with "The Merry Go Round Broke Down" for whenever he makes an entrance at an official function...

That doesn't make it a good idea, no matter how appropriate it might be.
 
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TLK Valentine

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It's going to be pretty hard pretending to be the "good guys" when you're pro war crime.

Depends on what you can get away with doing to the people who call you out on it.

Reminds me of a line from Zorro, the Gay Blade (not what it sounds like)


Don Diego:
The people are quite happy working the land for the aristocracy...

Charlotte Taylor Wilson:
You don't really believe the people are happy!

Don Diego:
All I know is the soldiers are quite happy shooting the people who say the people are not happy.
 
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Arcangl86

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It does not undermine the UCMJ. As the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, the President of the United States has the authority under both the Constitution and the UCMJ to issue pardons.
I'm curious to hear what your actual opinion of this is. You are military correct?
 
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USincognito

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How do you know they where wrongly convicted?
Trump pardoned them because they were wrongfully convicted. Trump knows all. Trump can do no wrong.
 
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SoldierOfTheKing

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How do you know they where wrongly convicted?

You can look up the case. You can read up on what the case for the defense was, and the reasons why his conviction was appealed.

Put it this way: arguably he was wrongfully convicted. This pardon didn't just fall out of the sky.
 
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USincognito

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If I were in that situation. I'd be inclined to execute all prisoners in the field, orders or not. They could be concealing a grenade or IED. If they can not be easily detained, they may also report the squads position and tie up personnel. If they need information, they should use whatever means necessary, whilst retaining discipline.

Then you would rightfully be court martialed and sent to Leavenworth.

The USA military should be securing the borders of the USA.

That would be U.S. military or American military. The only time USA is used as an adjective is in sports.
 
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RocksInMyHead

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You can look up the case. You can read up on what the case for the defense was, and the reasons why his conviction was appealed.

Put it this way: arguably he was wrongfully convicted. This pardon didn't just fall out of the sky.
That was only one of the cases I mentioned (Behenna). And the arguable wrongful conviction was dismissed on appeal. It's pretty flimsy. In essence, an expert witness who agreed that he was acting in self defense did not testify. However, the court had ruled that, as the initial aggressor, Behenna forfeited the right to self-defense, so whether or not an expert agreed was irrelevant.

To clarify, he stripped a captive naked and threatened him with death - against orders, as he was supposed to be returning the man home - if he did not provide information. When the man attempted to escape/fight back, he shot him.

At any rate, he had not exhausted the appeals process, and his case was still scheduled for review at the end of this month. It would seem premature for the President to step in. (missed that the article I was reading was from 2013) Further, the circumstances would appear - to me - to warrant nothing more than a new trial, at most. The facts of the case are not in dispute here, merely the interpretation of them.

Gallagher and and Golsteyn have not been tried yet, so no one can make a determination of whether or not they are innocent of the charges, and I haven't seen anyone dispute the legal aspects of the other cases mentioned.
 
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Arcangl86

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You can look up the case. You can read up on what the case for the defense was, and the reasons why his conviction was appealed.

Put it this way: arguably he was wrongfully convicted. This pardon didn't just fall out of the sky.
The President is also supposedly looking at issues pardons to a couple of cases that haven't be tried by court-martial yet.
 
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Aryeh Jay

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I'm curious to hear what your actual opinion of this is. You are military correct?

Yes I am, 23 ½ years active and so far 2 ¼ years in the Michigan National Guard. This is my actual opinion due to the lack of praise on how great of an idea it was. I did not agree with Obama’s prisoner swap and do not agree with this.
 
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TLK Valentine

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The President is also supposedly looking at issues pardons to a couple of cases that haven't be tried by court-martial yet.

How long (especially considering how he's beating the war drums against Iran) before he starts pardoning war crimes that haven't been committed yet?
 
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Aryeh Jay

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How long (especially considering how he's beating the war drums against Iran) before he starts pardoning war crimes that haven't been committed yet?

He is fulling his Presidential duty that he was chosen to do by the American People. He is also setting the precedent for his own future pardon if the failing Democrats try to impeach him. Very unwise for the Democrats to do such a thing to the most popular President in all time. Sour Grapes. Sad.
 
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Desk trauma

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How long (especially considering how he's beating the war drums against Iran) before he starts pardoning war crimes that haven't been committed yet?
I anxiously await a modification to his speech telling police to be rough with those they arrest.
 
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TLK Valentine

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I anxiously await a modification to his speech telling police to be rough with those they arrest.

Taking his previous suggestions and turning them into orders? That's for when the protests start in earnest...
 
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Paulos23

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You can look up the case. You can read up on what the case for the defense was, and the reasons why his conviction was appealed.

Put it this way: arguably he was wrongfully convicted. This pardon didn't just fall out of the sky.

Arguably, it was self-defense from a prisoner that he was suppose to be freeing and instead was interrogating the man while he was naked.

There is so much wrong there that this man should be locked away for war crimes. The pardon just shows how poorly Trump thinks of the law.
 
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Aryeh Jay

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The pardon just shows how poorly Trump thinks of the law.

Only Trump and not the Oklahoma elected officials and military Generals and Admirals calling for the pardon?
 
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Fantine

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I hope active-duty and retired military and their families are paying attention to this.

If they have excused the president's bought-and-paid-for Vietnam deferment and his other actions against the military, I hope they will see that Trump's support for a "military without morals" discredits all its members, along with the Constitution of our country.
 
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RDKirk

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Were you on the courts martial board and reviewed all the evidence?

How do you know they were not wrongly convicted?
There is a series on TV where a group of people review convictions for the purpose of getting prisoners released who were wrongfully convicted. The judges and persecuting attorneys adamantly maintain that they were lawfully convicted but in many cases the investigators find exculpatory evidence which was either ignored or suppressed.
I just watched one a night or two ago where a "witness" originally claimed that the suspect confessed everything to him in jail. The investigators questioned him and he admitted that the police fed him all the detail about the crime that the suspect supposedly said.
I don't think anyone posting in this thread can make an informed opinion on any of this.
FYI I am retired military I was courts martialed early in my career when I had been in the military for less than 4 years and I served as a defense counsel later in my career, when I had more than 15 years service. As a commander I referred service members for courts martial and appeared as a witness.

There has been nothing said about him being wrongly convicted. If a wrongful conviction had been the case, should there have been an appeal of the original conviction?
 
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