Trump's pardon of war criminals demonstrates his stupidity

By SJ Otto

There are two main reasons I don’t like President Donald Trump. The first is that he has promoted a far-right agenda that has robbed working people of their rights and pushed back progressive policies in general. That is my main reason for not liking the man. But there is a second reason—he is a buffoon—an ignoramus who simply does not have the common sense needed to be a president. The second reason to dislike the man is probably the main reason most of Trump’s opponents don’t like him.

Just recently Trump pardoned three soldiers who committed war crimes. This includes killing people without any due process. One of these guys shot at unarmed civilians for no real reason at all. Not only have these people committed serious crimes, their own commanders wanted to punish them and Trump overturned their actions. According to CNN:

“President Donald Trump touted his move to intervene in the cases of three service members accused of war crimes at a campaign rally on Tuesday, framing the objections he faced from senior Pentagon officials as coming from the "deep state."
"Just this week I stuck up for three great warriors against the deep state. You know what I'm talking about," Trump said. "And so many people said, 'Sir, I don't think you should do that.' "

I could go on and on about the imperialist nature of the use of our military, but instead I will focus on the stupidity of this action. It is no surprise that military leaders feel they have been undermined and their jobs are now harder thanks to Trump’s foolish actions. From CNN:

“The comments come a day after criticism from Trump's former secretary of the Navy, Richard Spencer, who said the President's intervention in the case of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher showed the nation's troops "that you can get away with things."

It’s not hard to figure out why the military is upset with Trump. The military has its own ways of doing things. Leaders expect discipline. They have to have control of the troops under them. Imperialism aside, US troops lose the trust of those local civilians who have cooperated with the US army. Now many people will wonder if these troops can be trusted at all. They now know that if they are killed randomly by these troops, nothing will be done about it. Many in Congress also have questioned Trumps pardons. From The Hill:

Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), two members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are pressing the Department of Justice to answer questions about President Trump’s pardons of U.S. soldiers accused of war crimes. 

The Democratic senators want to know whether the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney was involved in the decisions to pardon soldiers accused of unlawful military executions, including fatal shootings of unarmed civilians.

They also asked whether the Justice Department issued any advice or recommendations to the Whiteboard me know House and whether it coordinated at all with the Department of Defense, where senior officials were initially opposed to the pardons. 

The bottom line here is that Trumps actions are just plain stupid. It doesn’t take much common sense to see that protecting murders in the military is just plain wrong and a very foolish move. Much of what our idiotic president does defies common sense.

I object to the wars these soldiers have been sent to, but regardless, Trump’s actions are extremely foolish. This is just one more reasons that so many people want to see Trump’s presidency come to an end.  

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