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.”
Could be, should be, won’t be
Oh don’t worry, those down the chain will be prosecuted. Just not Hegseth.
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!”
Ooh, I did not consider the possibility of a military court case on this. That could be a game-changer.
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!
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
Could be, but won’t. At least, not under this regime.
Maybe its ethics. Maybe some folks in the chain of command have the fear of God in them. Maybe there’s just better pay in the private sector and now is as good a time as any to cash out. But I suspect stories like this are going to be increasingly common in the run up to the '26 election.
Future President Pete Buttigieg will have a cabinet full of people who drew the line at double-tapping a Venezuelan fisherman. And they’ll be spearheading our next Great Ethical War with… idk, Argentina or South Africa or something.
The people with ethics or morality resigning just mean they’ll get replaced with buttplug toadies. Kind of like our current Supreme Court.
Sure. But the toadies are less competent and easier to undermine.
we can hope for some high-profile resignations and maybe an outspoken admiral or something. And remember, it’s only Trump’s DOJ until it isn’t anymore, and I think the statute of limitations on murder is more than 3 years…
Not a Trumper but doesn’t this fall under the same reasoning as all the indiscriminate drone bombing from the Bush and Obama administrations?
If anyone is held accountable, it will be the person that ultimately pressed the buttons and/or their direct superior.
And they should be, MAGA is a terrorist organization
These idiots will never face consequences until the citizens get angry enough to start guillotine trials
Which means, as the law is being followed in the US right now, only the plebs at the bottom might be held responsible.
“held liable” means some bad press in ‘radical left’ media at this point, right?
50/50 they pardon everyone or Trump uses this opportunity to forcefully retire more generals and get Hegseth out.
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.
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
Those asshats will manage to walk. The ICC should step in so they can only travel between the USA and fucking Russia.
Lol, OK.
Still waiting for heads to roll for the CIA torture programme. The only person who went to prison was the whistleblower.
