For the forgotten men of 1st Platoon, Trump's pardon of an officer they helped convict of murder is a crushing betrayal

[Muhammed]

He served 6-years of a 19 year sentence. In war things happen. He volunteered to go to AFG and fight for the US.
Clemency is more than warranted for any serviceman in a war zone.

He should have never been prosecuted in the first place.

 

[Doc7505]

Only a few hours had passed since President Donald Trump pardoned 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and the men of 1st Platoon were still trying to make sense of how it was even possible.

How could a man they blamed for ruining their lives, an officer the Army convicted of second-degree murder and other charges, be forgiven so easily? How could their president allow him to just walk free?

"I feel like I'm in a nightmare," Lucas Gray, a former specialist from the unit, texted his old squad leader, who was out of the Army and living in Fayetteville, N.C.

"I haven't been handling it well either," replied Mike McGuinness on Nov. 15, the day Lorance was pardoned.



There's literally no point in anything we did or said," Gray continued. "Now he gets to be the hero . . ."

"And we're left to deal with it," McGuinness concluded.

Lorance had been in command of 1st Platoon for only three days in Afghanistan but in that short span of time had averaged a war crime a day, a military jury found. On his last day before he was dismissed, he ordered his troops to open fire on three Afghan men standing by a motorcycle on the side of the road who he said posed a threat. His actions led to a 19-year prison sentence.

He had served six years when Trump, spurred to action by relentless Fox News coverage and Lorance's insistence that he had made a split-second decision to protect his men, set him free.

The president's opponents described the pardon as another instance of Trump subverting the rule of law to reward allies and reap political benefits. Military officials worried that the decision to overturn a case that had already been adjudicated in the military courts sent a signal that war crimes were not worthy of severe punishment.

"

For the men of 1st platoon, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, the costs of the war and the fallout from the case have been profound and sometimes deadly.

Traumatized by battle, they have also been brutalized by the politicization of their service and made to feel as if the truth of what they lived in Afghanistan - already a violent and harrowing tour before Lorance assumed command - had been so demeaned that it no longer existed.

Since returning home in 2013, five of the platoon's three dozen soldiers have died. At least four others have been hospitalized following suicide attempts or struggles with drugs or alcohol.

The last fatality came a few weeks before Lorance was pardoned when James O. Twist, 27, a Michigan state trooper and father of three, died of suicide. As the White House was preparing the official order for Trump's signature, the men of 1st Platoon gathered in Grand Rapids, Mich., for the funeral, where they remembered Twist as a good soldier who had bravely rushed through smoke and fire to pull a friend from a bomb crater and place a tourniquet on his right leg where it had been sheared off by the blast.

For the forgotten men of 1st Platoon, Trump's pardon of an officer they helped convict of murder is a crushing betrayal

Only a few hours had passed since President Donald Trump pardoned 1st Lt. Clint Lorance...

www.lmtonline.com

Being "woke" isn't what 98% of you think it is. Being "woke" is coming to the brutal realization that there AREN'T 2 Party's and that they ALL work for the same people.

A platoon is many more than just 3 men, which is how many were quoted in the story. What do the others say? There are at least 15-52 more that also have a voice, which have not been heard from.

Exactly, a squad is between four to ten soldiers.

 

[odanny]

Trump is both a sociopath and someone who is in love with tyrants/murderers/dictators. He is a case study in the type of person you don't want leading a country.

And it is exactly the actions of this douchebag Lt. that prevents the genuine foundational goodwill to add credibility to any military incursion we undertake. When gratuitous violence is the order of the day we are not liberators, we are terrorists.

 

[WillPower]

What happened at My Lai was the same kind of thing. The anti-GI crowd couldn't have cared less what triggered that...they assume the Americal boys just walked in and started shooting. They don't know anything about the history of Pinkville and what happened to US patrols around there. They couldn't care less that women and yeah, children, were combatants capable of murder. Calley had enough of it...and never served a day in prison and neither did his Major....the wonderful Colin Powell.

 

[Doc7505]

/—-/ Was it as bad as Billy pardoning the FLAN so Hildabeast’s could secure the Hispanic vote for NY Senate?

Or Barry pardoning that disgusting little pervert Chelsea Manning serving life for multiple counts of treason?

Thanks I forgot about Bradley. I have to wonder how many soldiers he serviced in the barracks while in the military?

 

[night_son]

So why didn't they blow him away like Pat Tillman's boys did? If the American public knew what happened to ticket-punchers in Vietnam they'd never have allowed Afghanistan or Iraq. Patrols are the law out there...they decide life and death. Nobody asks for permission to shoot a sketchy civilian who ain't really a civilian. The man must have seen the subjects do something that triggered him to remove them from the board....I have no idea what happened but I know only too well what can happen. Somebody must have stood up for him or his accusers got their stories mixed up. Trump isn't tossing pardons around...if he were Manafort and Stone would already be home with their families.

I'll add my two cents. Since about 2011 guys we called district commanders, commanders not officially attached to any unit or task force but sort of "with" Army Public Affairs creeps and packing mysterious powers to influence and/or overrule regional task force commanders suddenly appeared and started acting like the old Soviet political officers assigned to every unit level of the Cold War Russian army. These people also seemed to have direct lines to and hold powerful sway over the COMISAF, or at least his adjutants, who at the time was Petraeus.

One of the main changes enforced by these dick district commanders was made, like on a daily basis sometimes, to situational ROEs or rules of engagement. Less than six months after they showed up over there, these people and their politically correct motivated bullshit had lots of guys shaking in their shoes to fire on any potential enemy combatant, for fear of being brought up on charges for a bad kill like the LT in question.

I'm aware of this because at the time I was serving with a small ARNG detachment which operated independently of regular conventional army forces. We were often tasked with missions directly from regional commanders and sometimes the COMISAF himself. After these district commanders showed up all of that changed and we suddenly became a number one target of their politically correct oversight campaign.

So it's not beyond the shadow of reason to believe a few of the LT's guys hated his guts, wanted him gone, and got him fragged up on bullshit charges any one of the aforementioned district commanders would have shot a load over to politicize and ram all the way up the Pentagon's ass. Hey, hey it was all about winning hearts and minds, don't ya know.

 

[night_son]

He served 6-years of a 19 year sentence. In war things happen. He volunteered to go to AFG and fight for the US.
Clemency is more than warranted for any serviceman in a war zone.

I've been there, NO it isn't.

Who have you been "there" with?

 

[Care4all]

The pardon was issued on November 15, 2019. So why is this all of a sudden a story in July 2020?

The House was having their impeachment inquiry investigation and hearings so it seems that it slipped under the radar.

 

[Care4all]

Only a few hours had passed since President Donald Trump pardoned 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and the men of 1st Platoon were still trying to make sense of how it was even possible.

How could a man they blamed for ruining their lives, an officer the Army convicted of second-degree murder and other charges, be forgiven so easily? How could their president allow him to just walk free?

"I feel like I'm in a nightmare," Lucas Gray, a former specialist from the unit, texted his old squad leader, who was out of the Army and living in Fayetteville, N.C.

"I haven't been handling it well either," replied Mike McGuinness on Nov. 15, the day Lorance was pardoned.



There's literally no point in anything we did or said," Gray continued. "Now he gets to be the hero . . ."

"And we're left to deal with it," McGuinness concluded.

Lorance had been in command of 1st Platoon for only three days in Afghanistan but in that short span of time had averaged a war crime a day, a military jury found. On his last day before he was dismissed, he ordered his troops to open fire on three Afghan men standing by a motorcycle on the side of the road who he said posed a threat. His actions led to a 19-year prison sentence.

He had served six years when Trump, spurred to action by relentless Fox News coverage and Lorance's insistence that he had made a split-second decision to protect his men, set him free.

The president's opponents described the pardon as another instance of Trump subverting the rule of law to reward allies and reap political benefits. Military officials worried that the decision to overturn a case that had already been adjudicated in the military courts sent a signal that war crimes were not worthy of severe punishment.

"

For the men of 1st platoon, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, the costs of the war and the fallout from the case have been profound and sometimes deadly.

Traumatized by battle, they have also been brutalized by the politicization of their service and made to feel as if the truth of what they lived in Afghanistan - already a violent and harrowing tour before Lorance assumed command - had been so demeaned that it no longer existed.

Since returning home in 2013, five of the platoon's three dozen soldiers have died. At least four others have been hospitalized following suicide attempts or struggles with drugs or alcohol.

The last fatality came a few weeks before Lorance was pardoned when James O. Twist, 27, a Michigan state trooper and father of three, died of suicide. As the White House was preparing the official order for Trump's signature, the men of 1st Platoon gathered in Grand Rapids, Mich., for the funeral, where they remembered Twist as a good soldier who had bravely rushed through smoke and fire to pull a friend from a bomb crater and place a tourniquet on his right leg where it had been sheared off by the blast.

For the forgotten men of 1st Platoon, Trump's pardon of an officer they helped convict of murder is a crushing betrayal

Only a few hours had passed since President Donald Trump pardoned 1st Lt. Clint Lorance...

www.lmtonline.com

Being "woke" isn't what 98% of you think it is. Being "woke" is coming to the brutal realization that there AREN'T 2 Party's and that they ALL work for the same people.

A platoon is many more than just 3 men, which is how many were quoted in the story. What do the others say? There are at least 15-52 more that also have a voice, which have not been heard from.

Not one spoke up in celebration of Trump's pardon, eh?

I wonder why not?

 

[L.K.Eder]

Only a few hours had passed since President Donald Trump pardoned 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and the men of 1st Platoon were still trying to make sense of how it was even possible.

How could a man they blamed for ruining their lives, an officer the Army convicted of second-degree murder and other charges, be forgiven so easily? How could their president allow him to just walk free?

"I feel like I'm in a nightmare," Lucas Gray, a former specialist from the unit, texted his old squad leader, who was out of the Army and living in Fayetteville, N.C.

"I haven't been handling it well either," replied Mike McGuinness on Nov. 15, the day Lorance was pardoned.



There's literally no point in anything we did or said," Gray continued. "Now he gets to be the hero . . ."

"And we're left to deal with it," McGuinness concluded.

Lorance had been in command of 1st Platoon for only three days in Afghanistan but in that short span of time had averaged a war crime a day, a military jury found. On his last day before he was dismissed, he ordered his troops to open fire on three Afghan men standing by a motorcycle on the side of the road who he said posed a threat. His actions led to a 19-year prison sentence.

He had served six years when Trump, spurred to action by relentless Fox News coverage and Lorance's insistence that he had made a split-second decision to protect his men, set him free.

The president's opponents described the pardon as another instance of Trump subverting the rule of law to reward allies and reap political benefits. Military officials worried that the decision to overturn a case that had already been adjudicated in the military courts sent a signal that war crimes were not worthy of severe punishment.

"

For the men of 1st platoon, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, the costs of the war and the fallout from the case have been profound and sometimes deadly.

Traumatized by battle, they have also been brutalized by the politicization of their service and made to feel as if the truth of what they lived in Afghanistan - already a violent and harrowing tour before Lorance assumed command - had been so demeaned that it no longer existed.

Since returning home in 2013, five of the platoon's three dozen soldiers have died. At least four others have been hospitalized following suicide attempts or struggles with drugs or alcohol.

The last fatality came a few weeks before Lorance was pardoned when James O. Twist, 27, a Michigan state trooper and father of three, died of suicide. As the White House was preparing the official order for Trump's signature, the men of 1st Platoon gathered in Grand Rapids, Mich., for the funeral, where they remembered Twist as a good soldier who had bravely rushed through smoke and fire to pull a friend from a bomb crater and place a tourniquet on his right leg where it had been sheared off by the blast.

For the forgotten men of 1st Platoon, Trump's pardon of an officer they helped convict of murder is a crushing betrayal

Only a few hours had passed since President Donald Trump pardoned 1st Lt. Clint Lorance...

www.lmtonline.com

Being "woke" isn't what 98% of you think it is. Being "woke" is coming to the brutal realization that there AREN'T 2 Party's and that they ALL work for the same people.

A platoon is many more than just 3 men, which is how many were quoted in the story. What do the others say? There are at least 15-52 more that also have a voice, which have not been heard from.

Not one spoke up in celebration of Trump's pardon, eh?

I wonder why not?

not one of them spoke up in his defense during the trial.

"Lorance’s soldiers turned him in that evening, and at the July 2013 trial, 14 of his men testified under oath against him. Four of those soldiers received immunity in exchange for their testimony. Lorance did not appear on the stand, and not one of his former 1st Platoon soldiers spoke in his defense. The trial lasted three days. It took the jury of Army officers three hours to find him guilty of second-degree murder, making false statements and ordering his men to fire at Afghan civilians. The jury handed down a 20-year sentence."

 

[Mac-7]

So a Newbie, 3 days in should not have been tried despite his men testifying against him.

The men who should be in trouble are bush and obama for conducting a pointless and hopeless war in afghanistan for 19 years

trump is working to put an end to it

 

[L.K.Eder]

Published by Hearst papers, still run by the family-

William Randolph Hearst Sr. (/ h ɜːr s t /; April 29, 1863 - August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications.His flamboyant methods of yellow journalism influenced the nation's popular media by emphasizing sensationalism and human interest stories.




Yellow journalism
Yellow journalism and the yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. By extension, the term yellow journalism is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion. In English, the term is chiefly used in the US. In the UK, a roughly equivalent term is tabloid journalism, meaning journalism characteristic of tabloid newspapers, even if found elsewhere. Other languages, e.g. Russian, sometimes have terms derived from the American term. A common source of such writing is called checkbook journalism, which is the controversial practice of news reporters paying sources for their information without verifying its truth or accuracy.Wikipedia

it is actually a washington post piece.

 

[Cellblock2429]

So why didn't they blow him away like Pat Tillman's boys did? If the American public knew what happened to ticket-punchers in Vietnam they'd never have allowed Afghanistan or Iraq. Patrols are the law out there...they decide life and death. Nobody asks for permission to shoot a sketchy civilian who ain't really a civilian. The man must have seen the subjects do something that triggered him to remove them from the board....I have no idea what happened but I know only too well what can happen. Somebody must have stood up for him or his accusers got their stories mixed up. Trump isn't tossing pardons around...if he were Manafort and Stone would already be home with their families.

I'll add my two cents. Since about 2011 guys we called district commanders, commanders not officially attached to any unit or task force but sort of "with" Army Public Affairs creeps and packing mysterious powers to influence and/or overrule regional task force commanders suddenly appeared and started acting like the old Soviet political officers assigned to every unit level of the Cold War Russian army. These people also seemed to have direct lines to and hold powerful sway over the COMISAF, or at least his adjutants, who at the time was Petraeus.

One of the main changes enforced by these dick district commanders was made, like on a daily basis sometimes, to situational ROEs or rules of engagement. Less than six months after they showed up over there, these people and their politically correct motivated bullshit had lots of guys shaking in their shoes to fire on any potential enemy combatant, for fear of being brought up on charges for a bad kill like the LT in question.

I'm aware of this because at the time I was serving with a small ARNG detachment which operated independently of regular conventional army forces. We were often tasked with missions directly from regional commanders and sometimes the COMISAF himself. After these district commanders showed up all of that changed and we suddenly became a number one target of their politically correct oversight campaign.

So it's not beyond the shadow of reason to believe a few of the LT's guys hated his guts, wanted him gone, and got him fragged up on bullshit charges any one of the aforementioned district commanders would have shot a load over to politicize and ram all the way up the Pentagon's ass. Hey, hey it was all about winning hearts and minds, don't ya know.

/——/ Thumbs up—-I think. Your post is so full of anger, venom and sarcasm, it’s hard to understand your point.

 

[depotoo]

Only a few hours had passed since President Donald Trump pardoned 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and the men of 1st Platoon were still trying to make sense of how it was even possible.

How could a man they blamed for ruining their lives, an officer the Army convicted of second-degree murder and other charges, be forgiven so easily? How could their president allow him to just walk free?

"I feel like I'm in a nightmare," Lucas Gray, a former specialist from the unit, texted his old squad leader, who was out of the Army and living in Fayetteville, N.C.

"I haven't been handling it well either," replied Mike McGuinness on Nov. 15, the day Lorance was pardoned.



There's literally no point in anything we did or said," Gray continued. "Now he gets to be the hero . . ."

"And we're left to deal with it," McGuinness concluded.

Lorance had been in command of 1st Platoon for only three days in Afghanistan but in that short span of time had averaged a war crime a day, a military jury found. On his last day before he was dismissed, he ordered his troops to open fire on three Afghan men standing by a motorcycle on the side of the road who he said posed a threat. His actions led to a 19-year prison sentence.

He had served six years when Trump, spurred to action by relentless Fox News coverage and Lorance's insistence that he had made a split-second decision to protect his men, set him free.

The president's opponents described the pardon as another instance of Trump subverting the rule of law to reward allies and reap political benefits. Military officials worried that the decision to overturn a case that had already been adjudicated in the military courts sent a signal that war crimes were not worthy of severe punishment.

"

For the men of 1st platoon, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, the costs of the war and the fallout from the case have been profound and sometimes deadly.

Traumatized by battle, they have also been brutalized by the politicization of their service and made to feel as if the truth of what they lived in Afghanistan - already a violent and harrowing tour before Lorance assumed command - had been so demeaned that it no longer existed.

Since returning home in 2013, five of the platoon's three dozen soldiers have died. At least four others have been hospitalized following suicide attempts or struggles with drugs or alcohol.

The last fatality came a few weeks before Lorance was pardoned when James O. Twist, 27, a Michigan state trooper and father of three, died of suicide. As the White House was preparing the official order for Trump's signature, the men of 1st Platoon gathered in Grand Rapids, Mich., for the funeral, where they remembered Twist as a good soldier who had bravely rushed through smoke and fire to pull a friend from a bomb crater and place a tourniquet on his right leg where it had been sheared off by the blast.

For the forgotten men of 1st Platoon, Trump's pardon of an officer they helped convict of murder is a crushing betrayal

Only a few hours had passed since President Donald Trump pardoned 1st Lt. Clint Lorance...

www.lmtonline.com

Being "woke" isn't what 98% of you think it is. Being "woke" is coming to the brutal realization that there AREN'T 2 Party's and that they ALL work for the same people.

A platoon is many more than just 3 men, which is how many were quoted in the story. What do the others say? There are at least 15-52 more that also have a voice, which have not been heard from.

Not one spoke up in celebration of Trump's pardon, eh?

I wonder why not?

In today’s world, how would we even know? Lorance was also an openly gay soldier. At the time, serving openly was still new. And surveys of service members still showed more than 50% did not agree with it. Did this have anything to do with the prosecution of Lorance? Who can say for sure.
There was exculpatory evidence withheld in the case. It was also confirmed that one of the men n the motorcycle was linked to a previous ied. Army prosecutors also did not provide to Lorance’s defense team activity reports and overhead aerostat balloon surveillance information issued shortly before the shooting that indicated the platoon was being scouted by enemy troops.

There were also threats to the 9 men in the platoon- we charge you with murder if you don’t testify against him, and given immunity for their actions.
He was also acquitted of ignoring the ROE’s, yet one of the appeals judges went around telling others publicly he had violated them which simply was not true.
There were injustices in this case. And he had already served 6 years.

 

[depotoo]

Published by Hearst papers, still run by the family-

William Randolph Hearst Sr. (/ h ɜːr s t /; April 29, 1863 - August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications.His flamboyant methods of yellow journalism influenced the nation's popular media by emphasizing sensationalism and human interest stories.




Yellow journalism
Yellow journalism and the yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. By extension, the term yellow journalism is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion. In English, the term is chiefly used in the US. In the UK, a roughly equivalent term is tabloid journalism, meaning journalism characteristic of tabloid newspapers, even if found elsewhere. Other languages, e.g. Russian, sometimes have terms derived from the American term. A common source of such writing is called checkbook journalism, which is the controversial practice of news reporters paying sources for their information without verifying its truth or accuracy.Wikipedia

it is actually a washington post piece.

And the wp is known for its bias. You cannot deny it.

 

[L.K.Eder]

Published by Hearst papers, still run by the family-

William Randolph Hearst Sr. (/ h ɜːr s t /; April 29, 1863 - August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications.His flamboyant methods of yellow journalism influenced the nation's popular media by emphasizing sensationalism and human interest stories.




Yellow journalism
Yellow journalism and the yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. By extension, the term yellow journalism is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion. In English, the term is chiefly used in the US. In the UK, a roughly equivalent term is tabloid journalism, meaning journalism characteristic of tabloid newspapers, even if found elsewhere. Other languages, e.g. Russian, sometimes have terms derived from the American term. A common source of such writing is called checkbook journalism, which is the controversial practice of news reporters paying sources for their information without verifying its truth or accuracy.Wikipedia

it is actually a washington post piece.

And the wp is known for its bias. You cannot deny it.

it is just awesome witnessing you whining about the washington post after you initially whined about yellow journalism by the hearst corporation.

all the while gobbling up the bullshit hannity and fox&friends spread with regard to this case.

what a tool. you cannot deny it.

 

[depotoo]

Published by Hearst papers, still run by the family-

William Randolph Hearst Sr. (/ h ɜːr s t /; April 29, 1863 - August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications.His flamboyant methods of yellow journalism influenced the nation's popular media by emphasizing sensationalism and human interest stories.




Yellow journalism
Yellow journalism and the yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. By extension, the term yellow journalism is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion. In English, the term is chiefly used in the US. In the UK, a roughly equivalent term is tabloid journalism, meaning journalism characteristic of tabloid newspapers, even if found elsewhere. Other languages, e.g. Russian, sometimes have terms derived from the American term. A common source of such writing is called checkbook journalism, which is the controversial practice of news reporters paying sources for their information without verifying its truth or accuracy.Wikipedia

it is actually a washington post piece.

And the wp is known for its bias. You cannot deny it.

it is just awesome witnessing you whining about the washington post after you initially whined about yellow journalism by the hearst corporation.

all the while gobbling up the bullshit hannity and fox&friends spread with regard to this case.

what a tool. you cannot deny it.

I got nothing from fox or Hannity. It came from several sources. The major source was the military times, regarding the exculpatory evidence and the appeals judge.

 

[L.K.Eder]

Published by Hearst papers, still run by the family-

William Randolph Hearst Sr. (/ h ɜːr s t /; April 29, 1863 - August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications.His flamboyant methods of yellow journalism influenced the nation's popular media by emphasizing sensationalism and human interest stories.




Yellow journalism
Yellow journalism and the yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. By extension, the term yellow journalism is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion. In English, the term is chiefly used in the US. In the UK, a roughly equivalent term is tabloid journalism, meaning journalism characteristic of tabloid newspapers, even if found elsewhere. Other languages, e.g. Russian, sometimes have terms derived from the American term. A common source of such writing is called checkbook journalism, which is the controversial practice of news reporters paying sources for their information without verifying its truth or accuracy.Wikipedia

it is actually a washington post piece.

And the wp is known for its bias. You cannot deny it.

it is just awesome witnessing you whining about the washington post after you initially whined about yellow journalism by the hearst corporation.

all the while gobbling up the bullshit hannity and fox&friends spread with regard to this case.

what a tool. you cannot deny it.

I got nothing from fox or Hannity. It came from several sources. The major source was the military times, regarding the exculpatory evidence and the appeals judge.

sure.

 

[Dana7360]

Only a few hours had passed since President Donald Trump pardoned 1st Lt. Clint Lorance and the men of 1st Platoon were still trying to make sense of how it was even possible.

How could a man they blamed for ruining their lives, an officer the Army convicted of second-degree murder and other charges, be forgiven so easily? How could their president allow him to just walk free?

"I feel like I'm in a nightmare," Lucas Gray, a former specialist from the unit, texted his old squad leader, who was out of the Army and living in Fayetteville, N.C.

"I haven't been handling it well either," replied Mike McGuinness on Nov. 15, the day Lorance was pardoned.



There's literally no point in anything we did or said," Gray continued. "Now he gets to be the hero . . ."

"And we're left to deal with it," McGuinness concluded.

Lorance had been in command of 1st Platoon for only three days in Afghanistan but in that short span of time had averaged a war crime a day, a military jury found. On his last day before he was dismissed, he ordered his troops to open fire on three Afghan men standing by a motorcycle on the side of the road who he said posed a threat. His actions led to a 19-year prison sentence.

He had served six years when Trump, spurred to action by relentless Fox News coverage and Lorance's insistence that he had made a split-second decision to protect his men, set him free.

The president's opponents described the pardon as another instance of Trump subverting the rule of law to reward allies and reap political benefits. Military officials worried that the decision to overturn a case that had already been adjudicated in the military courts sent a signal that war crimes were not worthy of severe punishment.

"

For the men of 1st platoon, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, the costs of the war and the fallout from the case have been profound and sometimes deadly.

Traumatized by battle, they have also been brutalized by the politicization of their service and made to feel as if the truth of what they lived in Afghanistan - already a violent and harrowing tour before Lorance assumed command - had been so demeaned that it no longer existed.

Since returning home in 2013, five of the platoon's three dozen soldiers have died. At least four others have been hospitalized following suicide attempts or struggles with drugs or alcohol.

The last fatality came a few weeks before Lorance was pardoned when James O. Twist, 27, a Michigan state trooper and father of three, died of suicide. As the White House was preparing the official order for Trump's signature, the men of 1st Platoon gathered in Grand Rapids, Mich., for the funeral, where they remembered Twist as a good soldier who had bravely rushed through smoke and fire to pull a friend from a bomb crater and place a tourniquet on his right leg where it had been sheared off by the blast.

For the forgotten men of 1st Platoon, Trump's pardon of an officer they helped convict of murder is a crushing betrayal

Only a few hours had passed since President Donald Trump pardoned 1st Lt. Clint Lorance...

www.lmtonline.com

Being "woke" isn't what 98% of you think it is. Being "woke" is coming to the brutal realization that there AREN'T 2 Party's and that they ALL work for the same people.

I have been a registered Independent since 1978. I have voted a variety of parties through the decades.

I don't give a damn about either party.

I can tell you the two major parties aren't the same. There are HUGE differences in the parties.

When did a democratic president pardon a war criminal like the man in the article?

I just don't see the 2 parties as the same. One is a bunch of evil monsters and the other is a bunch of spineless wimps.

Anyone who thinks that they are the same, I have some wonderful ocean beachfront property in Colorado to sell you.

 

[depotoo]

Published by Hearst papers, still run by the family-

William Randolph Hearst Sr. (/ h ɜːr s t /; April 29, 1863 - August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications.His flamboyant methods of yellow journalism influenced the nation's popular media by emphasizing sensationalism and human interest stories.




Yellow journalism
Yellow journalism and the yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. By extension, the term yellow journalism is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion. In English, the term is chiefly used in the US. In the UK, a roughly equivalent term is tabloid journalism, meaning journalism characteristic of tabloid newspapers, even if found elsewhere. Other languages, e.g. Russian, sometimes have terms derived from the American term. A common source of such writing is called checkbook journalism, which is the controversial practice of news reporters paying sources for their information without verifying its truth or accuracy.Wikipedia

it is actually a washington post piece.

And the wp is known for its bias. You cannot deny it.

it is just awesome witnessing you whining about the washington post after you initially whined about yellow journalism by the hearst corporation.

all the while gobbling up the bullshit hannity and fox&friends spread with regard to this case.

what a tool. you cannot deny it.

I got nothing from fox or Hannity. It came from several sources. The major source was the military times, regarding the exculpatory evidence and the appeals judge.

sure.

Here is more for you-
The platoon, which fell under the 82nd Airborne Division, was frequently in combat during their deployment. In the days leading up to Lorance taking over, the soldiers had sustained four casualties including the previous platoon leader.

The area the platoon was in was known to be a hotbed of insurgent activity.

Kevin Huber, a U.S. citizen and government contractor, watched some of the events leading up to the shooting through the cameras on a stationary blimp.

“I saw three fighting-aged males shadowing the American patrol at a distance of about 300 meters,” Huber wrote in Lorance’s new court petition that will be presented to the civilian court. “In my experience, they had every indication of Taliban or insurgent fighters because they were armed with AK-47 assault rifles and using ICOM radios while moving along the back wall of the village toward the American position.”

Court records do not indicate that those motorcyclists — if they were indeed the same ones who Lorance later ordered soldiers to shoot — were armed at the time of the shooting.

Daniel Gustafson, who served as the command sergeant major for the battalion over Lorance’s platoon, was located in the tactical operations center that day.

He wrote in testimony that he was 100 percent confident that Lorance’s platoon was being scouted for an impending attack.

“I understand that the three Taliban scouts riding the motorcycle approached Lorance’s platoon from the Northeast, that several insurgents were using ICOM radios and maneuvering into fighting positions to the North, and that a motorcycle rider came down to the West who was stopped, detained, and was found to have [homemade explosive material] on his hands," Gustafson wrote.

Gustafson said in his testimony that he personally knew Lorance and thought well of him.

“The chain of command thought so highly of him that when [the previous platoon leader] was wounded, there were a number of Lieutenants who could have been selected for this tough assignment that would absolutely result in gunfights occurring while on every patrol," the testimony reads.

Army officer convicted of murder in Afghanistan to get another look by civilian court

The review comes after former 1st Lt. Clint Lorance had an appeal rejected by military judges two years ago.

www.armytimes.com

And my original source of militarytimes for some info-

Clint Loranceâs lawyers implore Pentagon to not label their client a âbad appleâ in talks with President Trump

The defense secretary reportedly plans to ask Trump not to pardon the former platoon leader convicted in the slaying of unarmed Afghan men.

www.militarytimes.com