President Trump has pardoned Michael Behenna, a former Army lieutenant who served five years in prison for the murder of an Iraqi prisoner in 2008.

The Washington Post is shuddering at the news that President Trump has pardoned a U.S. soldier. Look at the tone of this :

Behenna, who was an Army Ranger in the 101st Airborne Division, was convicted of unpremeditated murder in a combat zone and sentenced to 25 years after killing Ali Mansur, a detainee and suspected al-Qaeda member. Behenna, who stripped Mansur naked, interrogated him without authorization and then shot him twice, has claimed repeatedly that he was acting in self-defense. In a Monday evening statement, the White House announced Trump's decision to sign an executive grant of clemency, which amounts to a full pardon, citing support from the military community and Oklahoma elected officials, some of whom had recently renewed a public campaign for the president's order. Behenna, the statement said, was "entirely deserving."

Iraqi prisoner? No, actually, he was a terrorist, and a full-blown member of al-Qaeda trying to kill us. That little inconvenient-to-the-narrative detail was left out of the Post's report. And the New York Times' report, if anything, was even worse. Instead of al-Qaeda terrorist, the Times says the soldier killed 'an Iraqi man.'

Like other Iraqi men?

It just goes to show the opacity and devotion to narrative of the blamestream media, which is still looking for any change it can to Get Trump.

Now, I'm no expert on the Behenna case. It's possible he did something he shouldn't have done, which would be detrimental to good order in the military.

But based on the case described by the Post, there were a lot of people doing things they shouldn't have been doing — the Post mentions sleazebaggery from the prosecutors in the case, who repressed exonerating evidence in order to get the soldier a much bigger punishment. It sounds as though they were leftists, given that they showed the exact same ethical practices as Kamala Harris whose prosecutorial career included lots of repression of evidence, too.

Bottom line: The Left is clucking its disgust and hollering about Trump's supposed abuse of privilege.

But as president, Trump has a perfect right to do it.

What we are actually seeing is a compare-and-contrast exercise in values. Trump pardoned not just this soldier, but Kristian Saucier, the hapless Navy sailor who unwittingly took a photo in a classified facility and was sent to prison even as Hillary Clinton got off scot-free for endangering U.S. national security through her illegal private server held in some guy's bathroom.

These people were attempting to do their jobs, however imperfectly.

President Obama, by contrast, issued pardons, too — to people such as Private Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning, who hacked and stole vast troves of U.S. secrets to undermine the U.S. war effort. This was a guy who wasn't doing his job.

Values, schmalues. President Trump is on the side of angels here. The pardon extends mercy to men who had been put in difficult predicaments based on the exigencies of war. They're being shown some mercy, not traitors.

Yes, he's a bit of a softie, but if Trump is going to show mercy, these might just be the best people to show it to.