Trump forgiving a US war criminal would be an insult to all Afghans

"Here's what's also shocking: A man with unparalleled access to the world's most powerful information-gathering machine, with an intelligence budget estimated at $73 billion last year, prefers to rely on conservative cable news hosts to understand current events," observes Politico, after analysing both the content of Trump's tweets and the programming schedule of Fox News.

All of this brings us to where we are today, with Trump announcing on Twitter he would examine the case of Major Mathew L Golsteyn, using, word-for-word, the exact same language aired just moments earlier by the network's morning programme, "Fox & Friends".

Last week, the US army charged Golsteyn with premeditated murder in a shooting that took place in Afghanistan in 2010

"At the request of many, I will be reviewing the case of a 'U.S. Military hero,' Major Matt Golsteyn, who is charged with murder," tweeted Trump. "He could face the death penalty from our own government after he admitted to killing a Terrorist bomb maker while overseas."

Last week, the US army charged Golsteyn with premeditated murder over a shooting that took place in Afghanistan in 2010, during the battle for the city of Marja in Afghanistan's Helmand province.

The basis of the story has all the essential ingredients to make Trump's political base and Fox News' predominately far-right audience hyperventilate:

A decorated US soldier convicted for what they perceive to be him doing his job - killing threatening Muslims in dangerous and foreign lands.

With his tweet, Trump has not only made "another extraordinary intervention into the American judicial system", but also has also reminded us of the crimes committed at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, Camp Bucca, and any number of other CIA black sites around the world during the Bush administration's prosecution of the "War on Terror".

Taking action against those responsible for carrying out war crimes and crimes against humanity is "crucial to the US' global standing, and needs to be undertaken if the United States hopes to wipe away the stain of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and reaffirm the primacy of the rule of law", observes a 2005 Human Rights Watch report titled Getting Away With Torture.

Moreover, Trump's undermining of the military justice system harms the country's ability to pursue its national interests by eroding its ability to project soft power, or broaden its diplomatic efforts.

It also puts the lives of 14,000 US serviceman and women still in Afghanistan further at risk, by undermining the trust and confidence their Afghan security partners have towards them. And all this does not even begin to address how Afghans themselves might feel, to see Trump show such clear disregard for the rules of war.  

The execution and pardoning of war crimes has come at great cost to the United States

Trump's possible pardon of Golsteyn, a confessed murderer, would "give logic to those who say they are waging a war against the Americans in Afghanistan because the Americans are not even committed to their own justice system", said Abdul Karim Attal, a member of the Helmand provincial council, in a telephone interview with The New York Times.

"If they are freeing a murderer from their own military court who confessed to committing a crime, how would the people of Afghanistan expect the Americans to bring wrongdoers to justice?"

Furthermore, the execution and pardoning of war crimes has come at great cost to the United States, with sins of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib greatly helping groups such as IS and al-Qaeda to attract recruits and thus increase the terrorism threat.

"There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation, we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age," reminded revered American journalist Edward R Murrow.

"We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."

Trump's attacks on democratic allies, the independent judiciary, and the free press; praise of illiberal authoritarian regimes; divorce from the truth; revealed criminality; and now potential pardoning of a confessed war criminal does not "put America first," but rather it makes the world an even more dangerous and hostile place for every American citizen.


CJ Werleman is the author of 'Crucifying America', 'God Hates You, Hate Him Back' and 'Koran Curious', and is the host of Foreign Object.

Follow him on Twitter: @cjwerleman

Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.