December 13, 2019 “Rescue me, please, from the hand of my brother”         Vayishlach 32:12

It has been frequently said that President Trump’s extraordinary decision last week to overrule the Navy disciplinary regimen and grant clemency and pardons to Navy Seals accused and convicted of war crimes by their comrade-in-arms undermines military discipline. More importantly, however, it debases a military code that honors rules of engagement, that compels witnesses of violations of that code to come forward, and that sets an ethical benchmark for the nations of the world. In 1973, 73 Israeli prisoners of war were murdered in cold blood by their Syrian captors. Hafez Assad, at least as far as anybody knows, did not hold the killers accountable. In the Korean War, North Korea and its Chinese patrons routinely murdered American prisoners of war. What strange precedents for our President to aspire to.