President Donald Trump made the right decision as commander in chief when he pardoned three military men from war crimes charges, as there must be distinctions between mistakes in combat and criminal activity, Rep. Michael Waltz, himself a combat-decorated Green Beret, said Monday.
"I have had to make these types of snap decisions under tremendous pressure in just seconds," the Florida Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "If you see people to your left and right being convicted as murderers, the default reaction becomes inaction and risk aversion. It's very dangerous for our military."
Trump last week pardoned Craig Lorance, a former Army lieutenant, bordering that he be released from the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was six years into a 19-year sentence for the murders of two civilians. The president also ordered that murder charges be dropped against Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, an Army Special Forces officer whose trial was scheduled for December, and reversed the demotion of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who was acquitted of murder charges but convicted of a lesser offense over the summer.
In Lorance's case, he had ordered his men to shoot at Afghans riding a motorcycle, after his predecessor had been killed a few days before in the same type of incident, said Waltz. However, the Afghans who had been shot were not armed.
"I do not believe that Lt. Lorance was a war criminal," said Waltz. "I do not believe he should have been sentenced to 20 years. There are real problems with his case and I am pleased that the commander-in-chief, the president, took a hard look at it...there are gray areas in this type of warfare. We need to default to giving these men the benefit of the doubt."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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