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Trump’s pardon of former Lt. Mark Bashaw has instantly transformed a once-obscure court-martial into a defining symbol of the COVID era’s unresolved wounds. To his defenders, Bashaw’s refusal to follow mask mandates was never about insubordination, but about drawing a line against what they saw as creeping government control. To his detractors, he violated the sacred chain of command in an institution that survives on order, not individual interpretation.
