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11 tweets,
3 min read
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1. This is an emotionally charged issue: Trump pardons the former soldier who was convicted of murdering an Iraqi prisoner. As an Army veteran, let me be clear - I support our troops. They are our heroes, keeping us safe and free. Moreover, when serving...
2. in a combat zone, they deal w/ impossibly difficult & volatile circumstances and we must be careful not to second guess split-second decisions soldiers make under stressful, dangerous situations. However, after spending more that 20 years prosecuting murder cases in DC...
3. it’s important that any time one human being takes the life of another, the circumstance be carefully scrutinized to determine if the killing was justified or if it was criminal. I readily admit I am not privy to all the facts and circumstances surrounding ...
4. Lt. Michael Behenna’s decision to kill Ali Mansur, an Iraqi detainee and suspected Al-Qaeda member. What I’ve seen reported is that Ali Mansur was suspected in a roadside explosion that had killed members of a platoon under Behenna's command...
5. As reported by NPR, ”In military court and in an interview last year, Behenna acknowledged that he had decided to question Mansur on his own, weeks after the Iraqi was initially released because of a lack of direct evidence that could tie him to the explosion.” ...
6. As reported by the Washington Post, Behenna “stripped Mansur naked, interrogated him without authorization & then shot him twice,” claiming he was acting in self-defense, afraid Mansur was going to take his gun. Based on the reporting, the prosecutor in me is troubled...
7. What also troubles me is that the president would pardon Lt. Behenna when the military criminal justice system found he had murdered an Iraqi citizen and appellate courts affirmed that conviction. I will NOT give Trump the benefit of the doubt that he exercised...
8. his pardon authority after a full and thoughtful review of the facts, the law & the equities of the situation. I think we should ask ourselves what message Trump is intending to send with this pardon? Is Trump signaling that life of a Muslim is unworthy of protection ...
9. such that his killing ought not be punished? Or perhaps Trump is sending a message to military members that, ‘if I need the military to do something to protect me someday I want you to remember I pardoned one of your fellow soldiers.’ Or does Trump have some other agenda here?
10. We need to ask these questions given Trump’s track record of abusing his power and treating the military as his plaything by sending soldiers to the border for his fake national emergency, pilfering military funds to build his vanity wall, etc...
11. Let’s never forget that Trump pretended to have bone spurs in is his foot that “prevented” him from serving in the military (but not from playing endless rounds of golf). No matter how you slice it, Trump is unfit to be Commander in Chief of our brave, honorable soldiers.
