Trump's pardons to serviceman raise fears that laws of war don't apply

Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance changed out of the drab inmate's uniform he had worn for six years Friday and left the military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas a free man. He arrived minutes later at a nearby hotel, where his family swallowed him in a group embrace, crying tears of joy.

"I want to say thank you to President Trump," he said amid a throng of well-wishers. "And I want the rest of the country to do that, too."

The president Friday cleared Lorance and two other servicemen accused or convicted of war crimes, drawing cheers from supporters who said the men had been unfairly punished for decisions made in the confusion of war.

But many in the military, especially in military legal circles, are not celebrating. Trump's reprieves, issued against the advice of top defense officials, were seen as a sign of disregard not only for the decisions of military juries but also for the judicial ­process itself.

Military officials publicly accepted the president's orders — pardons for Maj. Matthew Golsteyn of the Army Special Forces and Lorance, and a sentence reduction for Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher of the Navy SEALs.

"We acknowledge his order and are implementing it," the Navy chief of information said on Twitter.

Privately, though, many worried that Trump's actions could erode discipline by sending a message to troops and commanders that in some cases the laws of war don't apply.

All three men were accused of war crimes, but details raised disparate concerns for military order.

Lorance was convicted at trial in 2013 for ordering the shooting of a group of civilians in Afghanistan, an order he then tried to cover up. He was given a full pardon.

Gallagher was charged with the murder of a captive in Iraq but was acquitted this summer of all charges except for the minor charge of posing for a photo with a corpse.

Golsteyn was awaiting trial on charges that he murdered an unarmed Afghan in 2010.

"Golsteyn is the most troubling, because the system was never given a chance to work," said Charles Dunlap, a retired major general who was the deputy judge advocate general of the Air Force and is the head of Duke University's Center on Law, Ethics and National Security.

Many senior military leaders felt the pardons sent the wrong message, said Phillip Carter, an Iraq war veteran who researches military issues at the Rand Corp.

"Ever since Vietnam, the leadership has sent a message that there is a link between discipline, respect for laws of war and military effectiveness," Carter said. "The ­pardons send a different message that sometimes the laws get in the way."

Trump is not the first commander in chief to wield the power of clemency in a polarizing way.

President George Washington pardoned men convicted of treason in the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791-94 despite howls of protest from other Federalists, said Mark Osler, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas.

President Abraham Lincoln repeatedly pardoned soldiers sentenced to death for desertion, even though his generals warned it would undermine battlefield discipline. President Gerald Ford announced in 1974 at a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that he planned to conditionally pardon 13,000 deserters and draft dodgers, which did not go over well with the audience of war veterans. His successor, Jimmy Carter, unconditionally pardoned hundreds of thousands of draft evaders.

Reactions from combat veterans were split. Many thanked the president for intervening on behalf of men who had volunteered to serve and protect their country. Others said the gesture of forgiveness tarnished the service of troops who served in the same vexing conditions but did not break the laws of war.