The New York Times recently ran the piece “Trump Betrays the Military” about Trump’s recent pardons by Benjamin Haas, who writes: “President Donald Trump on Friday cleared three military service members of war crimes … perhaps this is not surprising, considering that Mr. Trump himself has recently advocated a war crime — the appropriation of oil in Syria.”
FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle at illinois.edu
Boyle is professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. His books include Foundations of World Order (Duke University Press).
Boyle notes that the Army Field Manual states: “commanders may be held responsible if they knew or should have known, through reports received by them or by other means, that troops or other persons subject to their control were about to commit or have committed a war crime and did nothing to prevent such crimes or punish the violators. … That is, the commander may be criminally liable where there is personal neglect amounting to a wanton, immoral disregard of the action of the commander’s subordinates that amounts to acquiescence in the crimes.”
He said today, “Obviously war crimes are impeachable offenses. Trump is Commander-in-Chief and has become an accomplice to the war crimes he is pardoning. These are just the latest illegal actions by Trump that the Congress is refusing to address. Also, just yesterday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that Israeli settlements are legal, which is obviously false. They are clearly illegal and violate the Fourth Geneva Convention because they constitute a population transfer under occupation. U.S. funding for that is aiding and abetting clear violations of international law and war crimes.”
DAVID SWANSON, davidcnswanson at gmail.com, @davidcnswanson
Swanson recently wrote the piece “What Does the Pelosi Posse Want?” which states: “If the purpose of the current Trump impeachment hearings were simply to fulfill Congress Members’ oaths of office and do their jobs, it would be difficult to explain the past many years. Jerrold Nadler, Chair of the Judiciary Committee for the past 11 months, has known since inauguration day that Trump was in egregious violation of the emoluments clauses, and has since declared other Trump actions impeachable without moving to impeach him.”
The impeachment inquiry is of course being led by the Intelligence Committee, chaired by Adam Schiff. Writes Swanson: “Blaming Russia for the last election remains the overriding delusion driving decision making in Washington. That’s why the Judiciary Committee isn’t even leading the impeachment efforts.”