He isn’t going to start a war in Venezuela.
Saber rattling and threats are his limits.
Then claim he ended the war. Before it even started.
Unbelievable Pete Hegseth blew up two men swimming in the water after he blew up their boat. So wrong.
Leveling a second strike on the survivors of an initial attack on an alleged drug boat is a crime. And Republicans defend Trump crimes.
It doesn’t matter whether the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels as the Trump administration asserts. Such a fatal attack would have violated peacetime laws and those governing armed conflict, the experts say.
“I can’t imagine anyone, no matter what the circumstance, believing it is appropriate to kill people who are clinging to a boat in the water,” said Michael Schmitt, a former Air Force lawyer and professor emeritus at the U.S. Naval War College. “That is clearly unlawful.”
Hegseth called it “fake news” on social media, saying strikes on the boats are “in compliance with the law of armed conflict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command.”
I call bullshit
President Donald Trump said Sunday the administration “will look into” it, but added that “I wouldn’t have wanted that — not a second strike.” He noted that Hegseth told him “he did not order the death of those two men.”
Ah, yes he did Donald.
Looks like Bradley is going to get thrown under the bus
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday that Bradley had ordered the second strike and “was well within his authority to do so.” She denied that Hegseth said to leave no survivors.
the U.S. is not in an armed conflict with drug cartels.
“The term for a premeditated killing outside of armed conflict is murder,”
“Murder on the high seas is a crime,” he said. “Conspiracy to commit murder outside of the United States is a crime. And under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Article 118 makes murder an offense.”
Even within an armed conflict, Schmitt said the military would have broken the law if it killed survivors, calling that a war crime.
“It has been clear for well over a century that you may not declare what’s called ‘no quarter’ — take no survivors, kill everyone,” Schmitt said. Even in striking an enemy warship that leaves survivors, “you cannot attack them unless they’re still shooting at you.”
Leaders of the Armed Services committees in both the House and Senate have opened investigations.
“If I got an order from the secretary of defense to kill everyone, I’d respectfully say, ‘I’m not going to carry that order out,’”
Leveling a second strike on the survivors of an initial attack on an alleged drug boat would have been a crime, legal experts say.
www.pbs.org
