Nothing Quite Like a Pardon

Law of Armed Conflict...we're not going to be neutral, in fact, we've made a pretty solid case for us being biased over the last few years and it's something that we're ok with. We're biased towards the United States of America winning. So when it comes to the Law of Armed Conflict...there are things we don't always agree with, but there is nothing quite like a pardon.Now, just because we're biased doesn't mean we won't attempt to be fair and to be fair (key the fans of Letterkenny singing "To be fair"), there is more than one way to skin a cat. The more we live and interact with the world around us, the more we realize that there are literally millions of different solutions where the only real difference between any number of given solutions is the minutia with which we execute said solutions.Take Lt. Michael Behenna for instance. He was charged and convicted of killing Ali Mansur Mohamed while Mansur was a prisoner. We weren't there so we'll forgo the usual blatant defense of this man and argue on a more hypothetical and philosophical ground.Becoming a prisoner of war in the GWOT era, in the realms of being captured by the "good guys" doesn't always guarantee that you'll never be an asset to the enemy again. Speculative reports state that the Gitmo Five a.k.a the Taliban Five who were released in exchange for Bowe Bergdahl, have been dipping their toes into insurgent activities. The five men are definitely engaged on the side of the Taliban in the current peace talks regarding U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. After the suicide bombings late last month, it's difficult to say if the Taliban is negotiating in good faith. When you combine that possibility and the fact that once Mansur had capitulated and given over information, he was killed...it's difficult, to say the least, for us to feel any sort of remorse for Mansur who allegedly attacked Michael and lunged for his weapon.Does Lt. Behenna deserve a pardon? We don't know, but we know that a guy responsible for killing Americans is dead and won't come back to play again, unlike the Taliban Five who's future is uncertain.What is the outright objective of war? To kill so many of the enemy that they are forced to bend to your will, right? So in our mind, Lt. Behenna, even if he wasn't legally in the right...was tactically right to a degree.You may find yourself saying that we don't do this to POWs because then it'll be done to our men and women...quick question...when has that actually saved our lives? When have we fought an enemy with our same moral and ethical compass? We haven't really. It's really a gamble on how they'll be treated depending on who captures them. Let's just remember for argument's sake what North Korea did to a mere citizen for stealing a propaganda poster...do you honestly think they'll be kind and generous to our men and women? Maybe we should ask surviving POWs who did time in the Hanoi Hilton how they were treated.Long and short of it, you may not love Lt. Behenna, but we really don't see anything wrong with him getting a pardon. And there's nothing quite like a pardon.