Anna Lorance, the mother of Army Lieutenant Clint Lorance is pleading with President Obama to let her son come home. In 2013 Lt. Lorance was sentenced to 20 years in prison for what the Army claims was murder.
In 2012 Lorance was leading a platoon in Afghanistan when three men on a motorcycle suddenly came toward the troops. Lorance ordered his men to open fire, leaving two of the Afghan men dead.
The Army said the men were not enemy combatants and Lorance’s was charged with violating the rules of engagement.
Since his court martial, new evidence has come to light that shows the two men killed were biometrically linked to terrorism and IED attacks that killed U.S. troops. In November Clint’s lawyer submitted papers seeking to have the conviction overturned due to the new evidence. Anna Lorance said the family hasn’t heard back from the Army since the November filing.
If the 82nd Airborne Division commander, Brig. Gen. Richard D. Clarke, declines to overturn the case the family is hoping that the President will step in on Clint’s behalf.
Over the past eight years, President Obama has granted almost a 1000 presidential pardons and commutations to criminals, including those with drug and gun convictions, more than all other presidents combined.
Anna Lorance has started a Change.org petition which reads as follows:
Clint Lorance is a loving, caring, hardworking, determined, friendly, positive person who has dedicated his life to the Army. He was an enlisted soldier who was the first in his family to graduate college, which he did while serving in the Army before becoming an officer.
Clint is from Oklahoma and spent time in Texas, where his family lives now. First Lieutenant Clint Lorance has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder because of an unfortunate incident while Clint was deployed to a volatile area of Afghanistan in July 2012, Panzai, in Kandahar province.
Only 96 hours after he took charge of his platoon, who had already been in the area for 7 months, Clint gave a difficult order under pressure in order to stay true to the only promise he made to his men – that he would not lose one of them. This was a bold promise since the platoon had suffered four casualties already, including the previous platoon leader who Clint was brought in to replace.
Three Afghans came speeding toward Clint’s platoon and their Afghan National Army counterparts on a known enemy route where they had been attacked just days before. Clint gave the order, responding to his soldier’s verbal warning, to his men to engage the threat, and two of the men on the motorcycle were killed and the third escaped.
American service members volunteer to put themselves in harms way, sometimes for multiple deployments. When an accidental civilian death occurs as a result of the asymmetric nature of modern warfare, the US Government looks for someone to hold accountable. This is when US service members are offered as a sacrifice to host nation governments. There must be something done to prevent this in the future.
9/11 showed us what happens to our country when we don’t go on the offense. It is imperitive that the United States have a strong and capable military. We can’t have that strong military without strong leaders within the military who are willing to do what it takes to protect their men.
The US is a laughing stock to many countries in the war zone. When Taliban shoot at US Troops, the US Troops in many situations will not shoot back for fear of getting in trouble.
Is this the kind of reputation we want for our military on the world stage? Do we want Soldiers who are too scared of legal ramifications that they will simply let the Taliban run away.
This is appalling. To the millions of US service members who have been maimed and killed to defend our great nation, and to the millions to come who will voluntarily deploy to protect American lives, we owe them more than this. We owe them not just our support but we owe them the assurance that America does not turn its back on its Soldiers.
Make no mistake about it folks, the United States Government has sacrificed young 1LT Clint Lorance to appease the Afghan Government.
Another recent story in the news may add weight to Anna Lorances appeasement claim. In that case a Green Beret beat up an Afghan Officer for raping a boy and the Army tried to kick the decorated United States Army sergeant out of the service. Read the story here: Green Beret Who Beat Up Afghan Officer for Raping Boy Can Stay in Army