By Florida Bill Inside the dingy, barred cells at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, are two American soldiers taken down and stripped of all honor. One embodies the evil persona of an Islamic terrorist who has earned his death sentence. The other is a patriot deserving of loyalty, understanding and respect, not punishment.
In one cell at the military prison is Major Nidal Hasan who shot and killed 13 fellow soldiers and wounded 32 others in an explosion of Islamic gunfire at Fort Hood, Texas in November of 2009. He awaits execution, fitting justice for his ineffable crimes.
The other soldier is Lt. Clint Lorance, now 32, who is serving a 20-year sentence for murder, and it is here that justice has gone haywire. His alleged crime came during the height of dangerous combat in the mountains of Afghanistan as he ordered solders in his platoon to "engage" a trio of three men on a motor bike whom he had reason to believe were Taliban soldiers on a suicide mission to kill Americans under his command.
For the young officer, it was only his third day commanding the platoon on patrol in the Kandahar province, near Panzai in July of 2012. He had replaced an officer who had been injured in an attack by the Taliban. He made a split- second decision when he told his soldiers to fire on a trio of suspected miscreants on a motor bike heading toward his platoon. Two of the three Afghans were fatally shot and the third ran into the mountains. Subsequently, it was determined that the men killed were unarmed, though his attorneys have argued that the Afghans had terrorist connections.
The Taliban enemy cannot be identified by uniform and often are indistinguishable from Afghans who reside peacefully in villages. To the lieutenant, danger to his platoon, even death, appeared all too imminent. Pondering the situation was for him not an option.
Within 13 months, Lt. Lorance was charged with second degree murder, tried by a military court, found guilty, sentenced to prison, and stripped of all honor and dishonorably discharged. It was "fast and sweet" and it pleased armchair critics and military pacifists who endorse political correctness on the battlefield. But it was not justice, and it denigrated the patriotism and traditions of this great nation.
Lt. Lorance had reacted under difficult conditions as a soldier leading and protecting his platoon with nine men, and in accord with his training as an officer. Did he act too quickly? Maybe, but it was the hell of combat, and he had been warned by superior officers to be on guard for "make-believe" villagers whose one and only mindset is to kill Americans. Lt. Lorance understood the enemy and he did what he believed was right.
The sad truth is that there has been no justice for Lt. Lorance, who now ponders his life in a military prison and wonders how it all came to be. The idea that he is a "murderer" strains the logic of clear thinking persons.
Contrast the plight of First Lt. Lorance, a young man who loved his country and was proud to be a soldier and answer the nation's call during a time of war, with the conduct of Major Hasan, a medical doctor and a psychiatrist trained at army expense, who murdered companion soldiers in the "name of Allah."
It took four long years after Hasan acted on November 9, 2009, to bring him to trial for the slaughtering of fellow soldiers. With his gun blazing in that premeditated attack, he yelled "Allahu Akbar, (God is Great) and then mowed down innocent victims standing alongside him in an assembly hall at the large army base. It was the worst mass killing in a military installation in United States history.
Immediately after his rampage, Hasan acknowledged his actions and offered no defense other than he was a "Soldier of Allah." President Obama and his administration downplayed the incident and called it "workplace violence." Hasan was shot and captured on the scene. His wounds were severe and have left him in a wheel chair and in the four years following his arrest and until his conviction, he has received daily medical care as well as his officer's pay which has amounted to $300,000. His pay was terminated following conviction, but his daily sustenance and medical care continues.
Hasan declined legal representation at trial, and delayed the court-martialed for unreasonable periods, demanding permission to wear his Islamic beard and to represent himself in the proceedings. He was found guilty of the premeditated murders in August, 2013 and sentenced to death several weeks later. He now awaits his execution pending mandatory appeals.
Four years have now passed and the wheels of justice inch along slowly. Hasan requests that there be no appeals and that the order of the court be carried out immediately so as to assure his martyrdom for his acts which have received praise from Muslim extremists and others who endorse him as a hero.
Army prosecutors were too quick to find fault with Lt. Lorance. The actual soldiers who shot the Afghans (it wasn't Lorance) could have declined an improper order from their lieutenant, but they did not, and more than one fired their weapons. They were granted immunity from prosecution so long as they laid the blame entirely on Lt. Lorance for acting recklessly and with malice for middle easterners.
Clint Lorance was 28 years old and had been a soldier for 10 years. He had enlisted after high school and was making the military his career. He loved the army, and his country and he sought to make his family proud. His mother and his friends who knew him praise his character and devotion to duty. As a soldier, he studied and eventually obtained a commission as a second lieutenant and later was promoted to first lieutenant. No matter how you wish to examine this case, Clint Lorance is no murderer and does not belong in a military prison.
To date his appeals have been denied by higher courts. His petition for clemency and pardon containing the signatures of tens of thousands of persons was submitted to President Obama who ignored it, and choose instead, before leaving office in January, 2017, to pardon some 1,700 drug dealers and users. Obama also approved the release of Pvt. Bradley Manning who had been convicted of stealing classified documents and distributing them. For his traitorous behavior, he had been sentenced to 35 years in prison, but pardoned after incarceration for seven years.
A new petition signed by hundreds of thousands has now been forwarded to the desk of President Trump for consideration for a pardon. The Republican President, unlike Obama, is respectful of the military and of the men and women who wear the country's uniform.
The bottom line is that Lt. Lorance was a dedicated army officer serving during combat in the mountains of Afghanistan, and he did what he believed was right and in the interests of the nine soldiers serving under his command. His attorneys have said that there is evidence that the Afghans who were shot had connections to terrorists, but that that evidence has been overlooked. President Trump is being asked to examine the whole picture and to provide the justice that he deserves. Mr. President, Clint Lorance is no murderer.
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