The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) has its roots all the way back to Article 1, section 8 of the Constitution, which grants Congress the power to regulate the military. The UCMJ’s current specifics were authorized by Harry Truman in 1950, adopted in no small measure as a reaction to the many atrocities of WWII brought to light at Nuremberg, particularly the question of when subordinates must refuse to obey orders at odds with human decency.
While protective of individual rights and concerned about the means of safeguarding them, the USMJ draws clear lines for prosecuting crimes and abuses by US service personnel, regardless of branch or rank. The system it establishes deals with the very fine line between the key importance of respect for the chain of command and protection of “whistleblowers” holding officers to account for misdeeds. It’s not at all easy, but the code’s provisions offer firm guidelines and processes for establishing such balance.
Like so many institutions our nation requires to make the rule of law work, military justice is dependent on honor and good faith, presumably imparted to personnel from the first day they enlist, or, for officers, throughout their matriculation at the service academies. And this requisite permeates the process all the way to the very top, right to the White House. As Commander-in-Chief, the President possesses broad powers to intervene and alter military justice if he pleases. The ability to pardon, in particular, essentially permits him veto power of decisions rendered by military courts, ultimate authority as it were.
Of course, were such power to be used recklessly and arbitrarily, or worse, for political objectives, the entire system would be jeopardized from top to bottom. A couple of centuries of best practices could unravel quickly under such circumstances, the principle victims our soldiers in the field, no longer able to trust the foundations of their training because they can no longer believe in the chain of command.
The list of anecdotes about the casual and arbitrary violence by Special Warfare Operator Chief Eddie Gallagher is long and shocking. That the accusations come from his own men, several visibly anguished by what their conscience was forcing them to do, enhances their credibility, even if the actual charges he faced in court pertained only to his mistreatment of one teenage ISIS captive.
Stories of randomly shooting into crowds and windows, at women and unarmed pedestrians, witness intimidation and threatening whistleblowers describe an amoral predator. What comes to mind while reviewing the Gallagher file is, not only an American asset gone bad, but one that may have never been good, a Navy Seal who should have been red flagged from the start, identified as the conscienceless outlier his misdeeds in the field would later confirm. When descriptors such as “maniac” and “pure evil” are being employed to describe one with license to kill, everybody is in danger.
No matter. After an investigation and trial that acquitted him of murder once a fellow Seal with full immunity copped to the stabbing of a teenage ISIS fighter he was in the docket for, but fully clarified how dangerous Gallagher was to anyone within rifle range, the POTUS decided he had found yet another MAGA martyr to political correctness. Like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who bragged about how many Hispanics he could round up and force to endure the elements, and Scooter Libby, who endangered the lives of intelligence personnel for politics, Gallagher was another cause celebre from the bowels of Fox/AM. But this time Trump’s impulsive idiocy has inflicted incalculable damage that will reverberate into the indefinite future. To spare Gallagher from being drummed out of the Navy Seals, his trident repossessed, a fate all of his superiors agreed he richly deserved after posing with an ear-to-ear grin for a picture with the body of a teenager, Trump was willing to dismiss his Secretary of the Navy, and lay waste to the UCMJ.
For little more than some props from Fox and Friends, and fresh gibberish for his rally monologues to the wretched core, Trump has unsteadied the basis for honorable conduct by US military personnel in the field. After all, if a worst-case scenario like Eddie Gallagher is protected in full, indeed declared a hero and invited to Mar-A-Lago for cocktails, why would any soldier put his ass on the line to report misconduct, no matter how grievous the atrocity? And what bad apple would give a second thought to the consequences of a command he may be ignoring, or whatever ethical line he may be crossing. For God’s sake, the POTUS personally has his back! Best practices don’t stand a chance when the worst of us has the power to be despicable without thought or accountability… just a tweet.
Looking back on 2019, a year that encompassed some of the ugliest behavior of our nation’s worst Presidency, the Gallagher pardon may be the nadir. In various ways it clarifies how truly awful Trump and his base are, how destructive their abysmal sensibilities can be. The reality we suffer is as grotesque as it is inane: Presidential decision making has been relegated to the visceral impulses of just another Fox/AM consumer with remote in hand and way too much “executive time” to employ it.
The MAGA narrative behind the pardons of Gallagher and other US soldiers held to account for documented war crimes, ignores international law in favor of the ready-made excuses the barbaric acts of American enemies always provide. That is: our virtuous past now entitles us to be judged by the lowest common denominator enemies like ISIS embody. Instead of being appalled by an American sniper taking potshots at women in burkas, the ready response is simply “they do much worse and more!” A thought to ponder for 2020: the right of Iraqi or Afghani citizens to walk down their street without being shot for kicks by a maniac with a Navy Seal trident means less to our President than whatever wretched core acclimation he can gain for obstructing justice on his behalf. The banality of ruin. BC