To pardon or not to pardon

On the one hand, shooting innocent civilians in the cold aftermath of a military action is a heinous crime. It's brutal mass murder. It's even destructive of the military strategy, which typically involves not encouraging the civilians of enemy countries from joining the fight against America. American soldiers who do such things should be prosecuted harshly.

On the other hand, history is full of cases of soldiers being scapegoated for doing what they believed was the mission before the brass gets embarrassed when the mission becomes public knowledge. From Edgar Derby, the World War 2 soldier who was executed for looting a tea pot from Dresden, after the allies had torched the city and everyone in it, to William Calley, the sole Vietnam War soldier accused of responsibility for the My Lai Massacre. Young Americans joined the military, are trained to follow orders and to kill, then held responsible if they do this outside of the narrow limits with which our society says it's okay. They are either heroes, or criminals. Meanwhile, the officers who ordered the bombing of Dresden, killing somewhere between 25,000 and 35,000 people, are doing what they are supposed to do. Kill 30,000 people, it's a strategy. Kill one person, it's a crime.

So what do I think of President Trump's pardons of soldiers accused of murder?

To lay aside politics and prejudice, I can say this much: if the president feels that the rules around the conduct of the wars we are fighting are unfair to the American soldier, then his most important job is to change the rules, to ensure that the military is acting in a strategic and just manner. If in the course of this work, he pardons some accused under the old system, that is reasonable. But to ignore the rules, to allow the military to continue to act under the rules that they have, but then pardon soldiers accused of breaking the rules, that is simply undermining the system. That's a dereliction of duty. That's sending a message to our soldiers that they can do whatever they want to, and if it's against the rules, that'll be okay.

Maybe. If it attracts the president's attention.

In my work with troubled youth, I am often asked to implement behavior plans that I think are not the best. But as long as they are not genuinely bad, I try to follow them. I have a saying: "The only thing worse than a poor plan is a plan you don't follow." That's because if you don't follow the plan, the kid doesn't know what's expected, and can't do it even if they want to.

Whatever else you may think of how wars should be conducted, the pardons President Trump handed out this week are not following the plan. They'll only sow confusion and trouble.