SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Pete Hegseth is under increasing fire for a double-tap strike, first reported by The Intercept in early September, in which the U.S. military killed two survivors of the Trump administration’s initial boat strike in the Caribbean on September 2.
The Washington Post recently reported that Hegseth personally ordered the follow-up attack, giving a spoken order “to kill everybody.” Multiple military legal experts, lawmakers, and now confidential sources within the government who spoke with The Intercept say Hegseth’s actions could result in the entire chain of command being investigated for a war crime or outright murder.
“Those directly involved in the strike could be charged with murder under the UCMJ or federal law,” said Todd Huntley, a former Staff Judge Advocate who served as a legal adviser on Joint Special Operations task forces conducting drone strikes in Afghanistan and elsewhere, using shorthand for the Uniform Code of Military Justice. “This is about as clear of a case being patently illegal that subordinates would probably not be able to successfully use a following-orders defense.”
These idiots will never face consequences until the citizens get angry enough to start guillotine trials
“Could”
Could be, should be, won’t be
Oh don’t worry, those down the chain will be prosecuted. Just not Hegseth.
And they should be, MAGA is a terrorist organization
Y’all mother fuckers ebeying in advance. These assholes will be held accountable. Call your representatives! Don’t assume their power is so great because it’s not!
You are absolutely right. And even if they only end up charging some random lieutenant at the bottom of the chain, it will send a message to the rest of the troops that they will not be protected from the consequences of their actions.
Our representatives are literally owned by Israel and Israel loves this administration so I doubt we’ll get anything except a congressional hearing where they get a pool noodle beating for an hour or two. Why isn’t Trump in prison? That was a slam dunk case
Which means, as the law is being followed in the US right now, only the plebs at the bottom might be held responsible.
Yeah I hear Obama is going to be arrested for drone striking Yemeni civilians too #TrustThePlan #StayTuned #AreYouEnjoyingTheShow
Just like the Jan 6 hearings, they will drag it out for political points, but have no intention to seek actual charges, institutional change, military reform or anything.
It will just be: “Look at all the evil shit they did! Don’t you wish something could be done! Oh well. Also Maduro bad m’kay, drugs bad m’kay, Hamas bad m’kay, we love troops m’kay. Hearing adjourned!”
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As someone who lives in MN. Why the hate for MN? Genuinely asking, because I don’t think we’re THAT bad.
It’s because y’all lie about how many lakes you have, you dishonest bastards. 15k != 10k
- a former Minnesotan
You’d think we would have learned after the great lake battles of 1878. Where we fought using snowballs and hot dish. Smh
Minnesota?
That would require the administration’s own people to bring those charges.
And I can already tell you the words you’re going to hear if this makes it to court. “Unlawful Combatant”, a designation we created so we could ignore the rules of war while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. Trump declared the Venezuelan drug cartels to be terrorists. Now they’re treating them like we treated the Taliban in Afghanistan.
These guys are literally just waiting for the next outrageous thing to push this one out of the news cycle.
And yeah, we’ve been doing airstrikes like this for 20 years.
Spoiler: they won’t.
Those asshats will manage to walk. The ICC should step in so they can only travel between the USA and fucking Russia.
50/50 they pardon everyone or Trump uses this opportunity to forcefully retire more generals and get Hegseth out.
The war crimes don’t get pardons and have no statute of limitations.
I meant they offer the other generals a sweetheart deal of early retirement in exchange for testimony against Hegseth. IIRC some of the people involved with the torture prison in Iraq got to retire for their testimony.
Hey man, what does IIRC mean?
This is actually the example they use of an illegal order in the DOD manual.
Page 1117 18.3.2.1 https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23892053-dod-law-of-war-manual-june-2015-updated-july-2023/
Holy moly, all that’s left to do is to add a picture of Hegseth and of the exploded boat to illustrate this paragraph. SMH.
This should be top of the thread everywhere this story is mentioned, forever.
Incredible
Nooo, but trump and all his totally cool and not criminal bros said that the president cannot give an illegal order…
No no, he limits himself to “Clearly illegal” orders, normal illegal is beneath him.
Today I learned the word tragicomical
Does being convicted of a war crime or murder make you ineligible to be Secretary of Defense?
Exactly the same amount as being a 34 time convicted felon makes you ineligible to be president
