A retired general talks about why Trump’s possible plan to pardon a list of people convicted or accused of war crimes is such a horrendous idea.

[E]ach soldier, sailor, airman or Marine undergoes extensive training regarding rules of engagement, the ethics of the military profession, and the law of land warfare. That training is usually repeated within units every year of the service-members’ enlistment, and that training is refreshed prior to deploying to combat and is reinforced by unit leaders during combat operations.

That’s because commanders — the ones ultimately responsible for good order, discipline and adherence to professional military standards — know, as difficult as it may sound, they must ensure and apply a moral boundary and a moral approach to the most immoral of situations: that is, the controlled application of violence directed toward the enemy.

People who have access to lethal force have to be rigorously trained how not to run amok because they have access to lethal force. You could call it the Colonel Jessup problem.

Gangs and terrorists often kill haphazardly or wantonly. Those who belong to these kinds of organizations are not constrained by laws and rules of societal conduct, and that is why the actions are so abhorrent.

But a professional military force, representing a republic, must adhere to regulations, is required to maintain discipline under the toughest conditions, and the members must be cognizant of repercussion for violation of legal and professional standards. The training of the force is reinforced through the supervision and control of its commanders to ensure this happens.

And it doesn’t always work, to put it mildly. War crimes are a thing because training doesn’t always succeed at preventing them.

On several occasions, while serving as a general officer who had the authority to convene court martial proceedings, I had to charge individuals with violations of the rules of land warfare or the failure to uphold professional standards. On a few of those occasions, I agonized over my decisions because I knew the battlefield conditions were tough and confusing and the individual soldiers were subjected to extreme emotion and passion. But in those cases, when doing my duty, I was always confident in the military justice system to provide excellent legal representation and a fair trial or hearing.

It’s difficult. Punishment itself is a dubious concept, and it seems especially worrisome to apply it to people who were under a kind of stress that civilians can’t really imagine, but it won’t do to shrug off war crimes. At any rate the solution is not for an ignorant mob boss to pardon them as a Fuck You to libbruls.