Nathaniel Penn provides a fascinating piece of investigative journalism in his new article on Army 1st LT Clint Lorance (it's quite long, and I hope he turned his research into a book). This is the sordid saga of a LT whose actions wreaked havoc on those within his platoon, whom a panel (jury) of Army Soldiers convicted of murder, and whom President Trump later pardoned after Fox News transformed Lorance into a weapon in the polarizing culture wars it has helped fuel.
It's a troubling read, as the reporter details how zealous advocates with their own political agendas used false characterizations and lies to manipulate the Commander-In-Chief, as well as millions of Americans who didn't know better, into believing that the LT wasn't the murderer the facts proved him to be (he was convicted after all) -- instead wrongly portraying him as a scapegoat for supposedly bad policy decisions by the Obama Administration. One take-away from this piece: facts don't matter, propaganda does. Not reassuring for a democracy, nor for its military.
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