The goal was to avoid total war at all costs and to ensure that professional soldiers bore the brunt of war’s horror. ADADThrough the 19th and early 20th centuries, war had been moving steadily in the direction of total war. The logical culmination of total war came in World War II with the Holocaust, the strategic bombing of cities as a tactic of demoralization, and the dropping of the atomic bomb. In the three cases in which Trump granted pardons, military (not civilian) prosecutors worked hard to investigate and prosecute their own service members. In total war, civilians on both sides always lose.

Source: Washington Post November 19, 2019 16:33 UTC